Methods and systems for managing data

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for managing data, such as metadata or indexes of content of files. In one exemplary method, notifications to update a metadata database or an index database are combined into a combined notification. According to other aspects, an order among logical locations on a storage device is determined in order to specify a sequence for scanning for files to be indexed. According to another aspect, a method includes determining whether to index a file based on a path name of the file relative to a plurality of predetermined path names.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/643,191, filed on Dec. 20, 2006 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,672,962, which isa continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/112,422, filed onApr. 22, 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,693,856, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/877,584,filed on Jun. 25, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,012. This applicationalso claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.60/643,087 filed on Jan. 7, 2005, which provisional application isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety; this applicationclaims the benefit of the provisional's filing date under 35 U.S.C.§119(e). This present application hereby claims the benefit of theseearlier filing dates under 35 U.S.C. §120.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modern data processing systems, such as general purpose computersystems, allow the users of such systems to create a variety ofdifferent types of data files. For example, a typical user of a dataprocessing system may create text files with a word processing programsuch as Microsoft Word or may create an image file with an imageprocessing program such as Adobe's PhotoShop. Numerous other types offiles are capable of being created or modified, edited, and otherwiseused by one or more users for a typical data processing system. Thelarge number of the different types of files that can be created ormodified can present a challenge to a typical user who is seeking tofind a particular file which has been created.

Modern data processing systems often include a file management systemwhich allows a user to place files in various directories orsubdirectories (e.g. folders) and allows a user to give the file a name.Further, these file management systems often allow a user to find a fileby searching for the file's name, or the date of creation, or the dateof modification, or the type of file. An example of such a filemanagement system is the Finder program which operates on Macintoshcomputers from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Another example of a filemanagement system program is the Windows Explorer program which operateson the Windows operating system from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,Wash. Both the Finder program and the Windows Explorer program include afind command which allows a user to search for files by various criteriaincluding a file name or a date of creation or a date of modification orthe type of file. However, this search capability searches throughinformation which is the same for each file, regardless of the type offile. Thus, for example, the searchable data for a Microsoft Word fileis the same as the searchable data for an Adobe PhotoShop file, and thisdata typically includes the file name, the type of file, the date ofcreation, the date of last modification, the size of the file andcertain other parameters which may be maintained for the file by thefile management system.

Certain presently existing application programs allow a user to maintaindata about a particular file. This data about a particular file may beconsidered metadata because it is data about other data. This metadatafor a particular file may include information about the author of afile, a summary of the document, and various other types of information.A program such as Microsoft Word may automatically create some of thisdata when a user creates a file and the user may add additional data oredit the data by selecting the “property sheet” from a menu selection inMicrosoft Word. The property sheets in Microsoft Word allow a user tocreate metadata for a particular file or document. However, in existingsystems, a user is not able to search for metadata across a variety ofdifferent applications using one search request from the user.Furthermore, existing systems can perform one search for data files, butthis search does not also include searching through metadata for thosefiles.

Prior existing systems perform indexing of the full content of userfiles either upon user request or upon a scheduled time.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

Methods for managing data in a data processing system and systems formanaging data are described herein.

Various methods and systems for creating and updating an index databaseand/or a metadata database are described. Some of these methods andsystems include the use of notifications to cause an index database tobe updated, the combining of notifications, the filtering ofnotifications in cases where a database should not be updated, the useof an order, based on a user's interest in files, when scanning files todetermine whether to index the files, and the use of pathnames whendetermining whether to index files.

According to one aspect of the inventions described herein, a method ofmanaging data in one exemplary embodiment includes combining a set ofnotifications into a combined notification or a smaller set ofnotifications for updating a metadata database and/or index database andupdating the metadata database and/or the index database after receivingthe combined notification. The metadata database may include a firsttype of information for metadata for a first type of file which differsfrom a second type of information for metadata for a second type of filebecause the type of information in metadata for files of the first typediffers from the type of information in metadata for files of the secondtype. In certain exemplary embodiments, the method may also includefiltering the notifications before the combining of the notifications;this filtering would normally prevent the updating of a metadatadatabase or an index database for files that should not be in thesedatabases (e.g. temporary files, non-user files, etc.).

According to another aspect of the inventions described herein, a methodof managing data in one exemplary embodiment includes determining that agroup of related objects has been stored onto a storage medium, andcreating in response to the determining, a set of notifications forupdating a metadata database and/or index database, and updating themetadata database and/or the index database after receiving the set ofnotifications. This exemplary embodiment may be used for a package offiles which, from a user's perspective, appears as one object in thegraphical user interface but to the system appears as a group of relatedobjects.

According to another aspect of the invention described herein, a methodof managing data in one exemplary embodiment includes deter mining anorder among logical locations (e.g. directories) on a storage device,wherein the order specifies a sequence for scanning for files to beindexed on the storage device and the sequence is based upon alikelihood of user documents being in the logical locations, and themethod also includes scanning through the logical locations to determinewhether files need to be indexed. The method further typically includesindexing the full text content of the files in the order which wasdetermined. This order may specify, for example, a sequence whichincludes a user's home folder and a user's document folder (e.g. outsideof the home folder) and then a desktop location and then other folderscreated by the user, rather than the original system folders ordirectories present on an original system from a manufacturer. Thisorder may also be based on data indicating a user's interest in files,such as data which recorded which files or directories a user viewed orotherwise accessed, and the order may be based on frequency or recencyof the user's access. This order may also specify a sequence forscanning locations to determine whether metadata from files needs to beadded into a metadata database.

According to another aspect of the inventions described herein, a methodof managing data in one exemplary embodiment includes determiningwhether to index a file (or to add metadata from a file into a metadatadatabase) based on a file path name of the file and a plurality ofpredetermined path names. In one implementation, the predetermined pathnames specify predetermined directories which include temporarydirectories and operating system directories which should not containuser files that need to be indexed. The method may further includeindexing the files in response to determining that a file is to beindexed (and/or adding metadata from a file into a metadata database).This method may be performed automatically by the data processing systemsuch that the user will allow the system to automatically determine whatfiles need to be indexed (and/or what files need to have their metadataadded to a metadata database) and what files do not need to be indexed.

Other aspects of the present invention include various data processingsystems which perform one or more of the methods described herein andmachine readable media which perform one or more of the various methodsdescribed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a data processing system, whichmay be a general purpose computer system and which may operate in any ofthe various methods described herein.

FIG. 2 shows a general example of one exemplary method of one aspect ofthe invention.

FIG. 3A shows an example of the content of the particular type ofmetadata for a particular type of file.

FIG. 3B shows another example of a particular type of metadata foranother particular type of file.

FIG. 4 shows an example of an architecture for managing metadataaccording to one exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing another exemplary method of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a storage format which utilizes a flat fileformat for metadata according to one exemplary embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 7A-7E show a sequence of graphical user interfaces provided by oneexemplary embodiment in order to allow searching of metadata and/orother data in a data processing system.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show two examples of formats for displaying searchresults according to one exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 shows another exemplary user interface of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows another exemplary user interface of the present invention.

FIGS. 11A-11D show, in sequence, another exemplary user interfaceaccording to the present invention.

FIGS. 12A-12D show alternative embodiments of user interfaces accordingto the present invention.

FIGS. 13A and 13B show further alternative embodiments of userinterfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C, and 14D show further alternative embodiments ofuser interfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D show another alternative embodiment of userinterfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 16A and 16B show certain aspects of embodiments of user interfacesaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 17 shows an aspect of certain embodiments of user interfacesaccording to the present invention.

FIGS. 18A and 18B show further aspects of certain embodiments of userinterfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C, 19D, and 19E show further illustrative embodimentsof user interfaces according to the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a flow chart which illustrates another exemplary method ofthe present invention.

FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing another exemplary method of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 22A, 22B, 22C, and 22D illustrate the display of a display deviceon which an embodiment of the method of FIG. 21 is performed.

FIG. 23 is a flow chart which illustrates a combination of methodsaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a flow chart which illustrates an exemplary method to filterfiles as part of an indexing process.

FIG. 25 is a flow chart which illustrates one exemplary method forfiltering files.

FIG. 26 is a flow chart which illustrates an exemplary method forfiltering files to determine whether or not a file's metadata is to beadded to a metadata database.

FIG. 27 is a flow chart which illustrates another exemplary method inthe process of indexing the content of files; in the particular methodof FIG. 27, a priority for indexing is established based upon thelocation of the various files so that files that are most relevant to auser or which appear to be most relevant to a user are indexed first orwith a higher priority relative to other files.

FIG. 28 is a flow chart which illustrates another exemplary method ofthe present invention in which notifications for updating a metadatadatabase may be coalesced.

FIG. 29 is flow chart which illustrates another exemplary method of thepresent inventions in which notifications are coalesced.

FIG. 30 represents another exemplary method in which notifications maybe coalesced to reduce a first number of notifications to a smallernumber of notifications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The subject invention will be described with reference to numerousdetails set forth below, and the accompanying drawings will illustratethe invention. The following description and drawings are illustrativeof the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention.Numerous specific details are described to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. However, in certain instances,well known or conventional details are not described in order to notunnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail.

The present description includes material protected by copyrights, suchas illustrations of graphical user interface images. The owners of thecopyrights, including the assignee of the present invention, herebyreserve their rights, including copyright, in these materials. Thecopyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyoneof the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in thePatent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyrights whatsoever. Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 2004.

FIG. 1 shows one example of a typical computer system which may be usedwith the present invention. Note that while FIG. 1 illustrates variouscomponents of a computer system, it is not intended to represent anyparticular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components assuch details are not germane to the present invention. It will also beappreciated that network computers and other data processing systemswhich have fewer components or perhaps more components may also be usedwith the present invention. The computer system of FIG. 1 may, forexample, be a Macintosh computer from Apple Inc.

As shown in FIG. 1, the computer system 101, which is a form of a dataprocessing system, includes a bus 102 which is coupled to amicroprocessor(s) 103 and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 107 and volatile RAM105 and a non-volatile memory 106. The microprocessor 103 may be a G3 orG4 microprocessor from Motorola, Inc. or one or more G5 microprocessorsfrom IBM. The bus 102 interconnects these various components togetherand also interconnects these components 103, 107, 105, and 106 to adisplay controller and display device 104 and to peripheral devices suchas input/output (I/O) devices which may be mice, keyboards, modems,network interfaces, printers and other devices which are well known inthe art. Typically, the input/output devices 109 are coupled to thesystem through input/output controllers 108. The volatile RAM (RandomAccess Memory) 105 is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) whichrequires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data inthe memory. The mass storage 106 is typically a magnetic hard drive or amagnetic optical drive or an optical drive or a DVD RAM or other typesof memory systems which maintain data (e.g. large amounts of data) evenafter power is removed from the system. Typically, the mass storage 106will also be a random access memory although this is not required. WhileFIG. 1 shows that the mass storage 106 is a local device coupleddirectly to the rest of the components in the data processing system, itwill be appreciated that the present invention may utilize anon-volatile memory which is remote from the system, such as a networkstorage device which is coupled to the data processing system through anetwork interface such as a modem or Ethernet interface. The bus 102 mayinclude one or more buses connected to each other through variousbridges, controllers and/or adapters as is well known in the art. In oneembodiment the I/O controller 108 includes a USB (Universal Serial Bus)adapter for controlling USB peripherals and an IEEE 1394 controller forIEEE 1394 compliant peripherals.

It will be apparent from this description that aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied, at least in part, in software. That is, thetechniques may be carried out in a computer system or other dataprocessing system in response to its processor, such as amicroprocessor, executing sequences of instructions contained in amemory, such as ROM 107, RAM 105, mass storage 106 or a remote storagedevice. In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used incombination with software instructions to implement the presentinvention. Thus, the techniques are not limited to any specificcombination of hardware circuitry and software nor to any particularsource for the instructions executed by the data processing system. Inaddition, throughout this description, various functions and operationsare described as being performed by or caused by software code tosimplify description. However, those skilled in the art will recognizewhat is meant by such expressions is that the functions result fromexecution of the code by a processor, such as the microprocessor 103.

Capturing and Use of Metadata Across a Variety of Application Programs

FIG. 2 shows a generalized example of one embodiment of the presentinvention. In this example, captured metadata is made available to asearching facility, such as a component of the operating system whichallows concurrent searching of all metadata for all applications havingcaptured metadata (and optionally for all non-metadata of the datafiles). The method of FIG. 2 may begin in operation 201 in whichmetadata is captured from a variety of different application programs.This captured metadata is then made available in operation 203 to asearching facility, such as a file management system software forsearching. This searching facility allows, in operation 205, thesearching of metadata across all applications having captured metadata.The method also provides, in operation 207, a user interface of a searchengine and the search results which are obtained by the search engine.There are numerous possible implementations of the method of FIG. 2. Forexample, FIG. 5 shows a specific implementation of one exemplaryembodiment of the method of FIG. 2. Alternative implementations may alsobe used. For example, in an alternative implementation, the metadata maybe provided by each application program to a central source which storesthe metadata for use by searching facilities and which is managed by anoperating system component, which may be, for example, the metadataprocessing software. The user interface provided in operation 207 maytake a variety of different formats, including some of the examplesdescribed below as well as user effaces which are conventional, priorart user interfaces. The metadata may be stored in a database which maybe any of a variety of formats including a B tree format or, asdescribed below, in a flat file format according to one embodiment ofthe invention.

The method of FIG. 2 may be implemented for programs which do not storeor provide metadata. In this circumstance, a portion of the operatingsystem provides for the capture of the metadata from the variety ofdifferent programs even though the programs have not been designed toprovide or capture metadata. For those programs which do allow a user tocreate metadata for a particular document, certain embodiments of thepresent invention may allow the exporting back of captured metadata backinto data files for applications which maintain metadata about theirdata files.

The method of FIG. 2 allows information about a variety of differentfiles created by a variety of different application programs to beaccessible by a system wide searching facility, which is similar to theway in which prior art versions of the Finder or Windows Explorer cansearch for file names, dates of creation, etc. across a variety ofdifferent application programs. Thus, the metadata for a variety ofdifferent files created by a variety of different application programscan be accessed through an extension of an operating system, and anexample of such an extension is shown in FIG. 4 as a metadata processingsoftware which interacts with other components of the system and will bedescribed further below.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show two different metadata formats for two differenttypes of data files. Note that there may be no overlap in any of thefields; in other words, no field in one type of metadata is the same asany field in the other type of metadata. Metadata format 301 may be usedfor an image file such as a JPEG image file. This metadata may includeinformation such as the image's width, the image's height, the image'scolor space, the number of bits per pixel, the ISO setting, the flashsetting, the F/stop of the camera, the brand name of the camera whichtook the image, user-added keywords and other fields, such as a fieldwhich uniquely identifies the particular file, which identification ispersistent through modifications of the file. Metadata format 331 shownin FIG. 3B may be used for a music file such as an MP3 music file. Thedata in this metadata fox mat may include an identification of theartist, the genre of the music, the name of the album, song names in thealbum or the song name of the particular file, song play times or thesong play time of a particular song and other fields, such as apersistent file ID number which identifies the particular MP3 file fromwhich the metadata was captured. Other types of fields may also be used.The following chart shows examples of the various fields which may beused in metadata for various types of files.

Copied Item Parent in Multi- User with App name hierarchy Attribute nameDescription/Notes CFType value Localized settable Gettable copy viewableItem n/a Authors Who created or CFString Yes No Yes Yes Yes Addresscontributed to the Book contents of this item Comment A free form textCFString No No Yes Yes Yes comment ContentType This is the type that isCFString No ? No Yes Yes determined by UTI ContentTypes This is theinheritance CFString Yes ? No Yes Yes of the UTI system CreatedDate Whenwas this item CFDate No No No Yes Yes created DisplayName The name ofthe item CFString No Yes Yes Yes Yes Finder (or as the user would likeLaunch to read it. Very well Services) may be the file name, but it mayalso be the subject of an e-mail message or the full name of a person,for example. Keywords This is a list words set CFString Yes System- YesYes Ask by the user to identify provided arbitrary sets of keywordsorganization. The (if any) scope is determined by the user and can beflexibly used for any kind of organization. For example, Family, Hawaii,Project X, etc. Contact A list of contacts that CFString Yes No Yes YesAsk Address Keywords are associated with this Book document, beyond whatis captured as Author. This may be a person who's in the picture or adocument about a person or contact (performance review, contract)ModifiedDate When this item was CFDate No No No Yes last modified RatingA relative rating CFNumber No n/a Yes Yes (0 to 5 value) on howimportant a particular item is to you, whether it's a person, file ormessage RelatedTos A list of other items CFString Yes No Yes Yes thatare arbitrarily grouped together. TextContent An indexed version ofCFString No No No Yes any content text UsedDates Which days was theCFDate Yes No No Yes document opened/viewed/played Content/ ItemCopyright Specifies the owner of CFString No No Yes Yes Data thiscontent, i.e. Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. CreatorApp Keeps track ofthe CFString No ? No Yes application that was used to create thisdocument (if it's known). Languages The languages that this CFString YesYes Yes Yes document is composed in (for either text or audio-basedmedia) ParentalControl A field that is used to CFString No ? Yes Yesdetermine whether this is kid-friendly content or not Publishers Thename or a person CFString Yes No Yes Yes Address or organization thatBook published this content. PublishedDate The original date that CFDateNo No Yes Yes this content was published (if it was), independent ofcreated date. Reviewers A list of contacts who CFString Yes No Yes YesAddress have reviewed the Book contents of this file. This would have tobe set explicitly by an application. ReviewStatus Free form text thatCFString No ? Yes Yes used to specify where the document is in anyarbitrary review process TimeEdited Total time spent CFDate No No No Yesediting document WhereTos Where did this go to, CFString Yes System- ?Yes eg. CD, printed, provided backedup words only (if any) WhereFromsWhere did this come CFString Yes System- ? Yes from, e.g. camera,provided email, web download, words CD only (if any) Image DataBitsPerSample What is the bit depth CFNumber No Yes of the image (8-bit,16-bit, etc.) ColorSpace What color space CFString No Yes ColorSyncmodel is this document Utility? following ImageHeight The height of theCFNumber No Yes image in pixels ImageWidth The width of the CFNumber NoYes image in pixels ProfileName The name of the color CFString No YesColorSync profile used with for Utility? image ResolutionWidthResolution width of CFNumber No Yes this image (i.e. dpi from a scanner)ResolutionHeight Resolution height CFNumber No Yes of this image (i.e.dpi from a scanner) LayerNames For image formats that CFString Yes Yescontain “named” layers (e.g. Photoshop files) Aperture The f-stop ratingof the CFNumber No Yes camera when the image was taken CameraMake Themake of the CFString No Yes Yes camera that was used to acquire thisimage (e.g. Nikon) CameraModel The model of the CFString No Yes Yescamera used to acquire this image (Coolpix 5700) DateTimeOriginalDate/time the picture CFDate No Yes was taken ExposureMode Mode that wasused CFString No Yes for the exposure ExposureTime Time that the lenswas CFDate No Yes exposed while taking the picture Flash This attributeis CFNumber No Yes overloaded with information about red- eye reduction.This is not a binary value GPS Raw value received CFString No Yes fromGPS device associated with photo acquisition. It hasn't necessarily beentranslated to a user- understandable location. ISOSpeed The ISO speedthe CFNumber No Yes camera was set to when the image was acquiredOrientation The orientation of the CFString No Yes camera when the imagewas acquired WhiteBalance The white balance CFNumber No Yes setting ofthe camera when the picture was taken EXIFversion The version of EXIFCFString No Yes that was used to generate the metadata for the imageTime- Data AcquisitionSources The name or type of CFString Yes Yes baseddevice that used to acquire the media Codecs The codecs used to CFStringYes Yes encode/decode the media DeliveryType FastStart or RTSP CFStringNo Yes Duration The length of time that CFNumber No Yes the media lastsStreamable Whether the content is CFBoolean No Yes prepared for purposesof streaming TotalBitRate The total bit rate CFNumber No Yes (audio &video combined) of the media. AudioBitRate The audio bit rate CFNumberNo Yes of the media AspectRatio The aspect ratio of the CFString No Yesvideo of the media ColorSpace The color space model CFString No Yes usedfor the video aspect of the media FrameHeight The frame height inCFNumber No Yes pixels of the video in the media FrameWidth The framewidth in CFNumber No Yes pixels of the video in the media ProfileNameThe name of the color CFString No Yes profile used on the video portionof the media VideoBitRate The bit rate of the CFNumber No Yes videoaspect of the media Text Data Subject The subject of the text. CFStringNo Yes This could be metadata that's supplied with the text or somethingautomatically generated with technologies like VTWIN PageCount Thenumber of CFNumber No Yes printable pages of the document LineCount Thenumber of lines in CFNumber No Yes the document WordCount The number ofCFNumber No Yes words in the document URL The URL that will get CFStringNo Yes you to this document (or at least did at one time). Relevant forsaved HTML documents, bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. PageTitle The title ofa web CFString No Yes page. Relevant to HTML or bookmark documentsGoogle Structure of where this CFString No Yes Hierarchy page can befound in the Google hierarchy. Relevant to HTML or bookmark documentsCom- Data <Abstract> There are no specific n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/apound attributes assigned to document this item. This is to catch allapp-specific file formats that fall within Data, but don't fit into anyof the other types. Typically these documents have multiple types ofmedia embedded within them. (e.g. P PDF Compound NumberOfPages Thenumber of CFNumber No Yes printable pages in the document documentPageSize The size of the page CFNumber No No Yes stored as pointsPDFTitle PDF-specific title CFString No ? Yes metadata for the documentPDFAuthor PDF-specific author CFString No ? Yes Address metadata for theBook document PDFSubject PDF-specific subject CFString No ? Yes metadatafor the document PDFKeywords PDF-specific CFString Yes ? Yes keywordsmetadata for the document PDFCreated PDF-specific created CFDate No ?Yes metadata for the document PDFModified PDF-specific modified CFDateNo ? Yes metadata for the document PDFVersion PDF-specific versionCFString No ? Yes metadata for the document SecurityMethod Method bywhich this CFString No Yes document is kept secure Presen- CompoundSlideTitles A collection of the CFString Yes Yes tation document titleson slides (Keynote) SlideCount The number of slides CFString No YesSpeakerNotesContent The content of all the CFString ? Yes speaker notesfrom all of the slides together Appli- Item Categories The kind ofCFString Yes Yes cation application this is: productivity, games,utility, graphics, etc. A set list that Message Item Recipients Maps toTo and Cc: CFString Yes Yes Address addresses in a mail Book message.Priority The priority of the CFString No Yes message as set by thesender AttachmentNames The list of filenames CFString Yes Yes thatrepresent attachments in a particular message (should be actionablewithin the Finder) Authors maps to From address CFString Yes No Yes YesYes Address in mail message Book Comment Not applicable to Mail CFStringNo No Yes Yes Yes right now (should we consider?) ContentType CFStringNo No Yes Yes ContentTypes CFString Yes No Yes Yes CreatedDate When wasthis CFDate No No No Yes Yes message was sent or received DisplayNameSubject of the message CFString No Yes Yes Yes Yes Keywords There willbe a way to CFString Yes System- Yes Yes Ask set keywords withinprovided Mail keywords (if any) Contact Could be where CFString Yes NoYes Yes Ask Address Keywords recipients are held Book ModifiedDate Notapplicable CFDate No No No Yes Rating A relative rating CFNumber No n/aYes Yes (0 to 5 stars) on how important a particular message is to you(separate from a message's Priority) RelatedTos Potentially threadedCFString Yes No Yes Yes messages could be put into this categoryTextContent An indexed version of CFString No No No Yes the mail messageUsedDates The day/time in which CFDate Yes No No Yes the mail messagewas viewed/read Contact Item Company The company that this CFString NoYes Address contact is an employee Book of E-mails A list of e-mailCFString Yes Yes Mail addresses that this contact has IMs A list ofinstant CFString Yes Yes iChat message handles this contact has Phones Alist of phone CFString Yes numbers that relate to this contact AddressesA list of physical CFString Yes addresses that relate to this personAuthors the name of the CFString Yes No Yes Yes Yes Address owner of theBook Address Book (current user name) Comment CFString No No Yes Yes YesContentType CFString No No Yes Yes ContentTypes CFString Yes No Yes YesMeeting Item CreatedDate date the user entered CFDate No No No Yes Yes(TBD) this into his AddressBook (either through import or direct entry)DisplayName Composite name of CFString No Yes Yes Yes Yes contact (FirstName, Last Name) Keywords There will be a way to CFString Yes System-Yes Yes Ask set keywords within provided Address Book keywords (if any)Contact CFString Yes No Yes Yes Ask Address Keywords Book ModifiedDateLast time this contact CFDate No No No Yes entry was modified Rating Arelative rating CFNumber No n/a Yes Yes (0 to 5 stars) on how importanta particular contact is to you (separate from a message's Priority)RelatedTos (potentially could be CFString Yes No Yes Yes used toassociate people from the same company or family) TextContent An indexedversion of CFString No No No Yes the Notes section UsedDates Theday/time in which CFDate Yes No No Yes the contact entry was viewed inAddress Book Body text, rich text or CFString No Yes document thatrepresents the full content of the event Description text describing theCFString No Yes event EventTimes time/date the event CFDate Yes Yesstarts Duration The length of time that CFNumber No Yes the meetinglasts Invitees The list of people who CFString Yes Yes Address areinvited to the Book meeting Location The name of the CFString No Yeslocation where the meeting is taking place

One particular field which may be useful in the various metadata formatswould be a field which includes an identifier of a plug in or othersoftware element which may be used to capture metadata from a data fileand/or export metadata back to the creator application.

Various different software architectures may be used to implement thefunctions and operations described herein. The following discussionprovides one example of such an architecture, but it will be understoodthat alternative architectures may also be employed to achieve the sameor similar results. The software architecture shown in FIG. 4 is anexample which is based upon the Macintosh operating system. Thearchitecture 400 includes a metadata processing software 401 and anoperating system (OS) kernel 403 which is operatively coupled to themetadata processing software 401 for a notification mechanism which isdescribed below. The metadata processing software 401 is also coupled toother software programs such as a file system graphical user interfacesoftware 405 (which may be the Finder), an email software 407, and otherapplications 409. These applications are coupled to the metadataprocessing software 401 through client application program interface 411which provide a method for transferring data and commands between themetadata processing software 401 and the software 405, 407, and 409.These commands and data may include search parameters specified by auser as well as commands to perform searches from the user, whichparameters and commands are passed to the metadata processing software401 through the interface 411. The metadata processing software 401 isalso coupled to a collection of importers 413 which extract data fromvarious applications. In particular, in one exemplary embodiment, a textimporter is used to extract text and other information from wordprocessing or text processing files created by word processing programssuch as Microsoft Word, etc. This extracted information is the metadatafor a particular file. Other types of importers extract metadata fromother types of files, such as image files or music files. In thisparticular embodiment, a particular importer is selected based upon thetype of file which has been created and modified by an applicationprogram. For example, if the data file was created by PhotoShop, then animage importer for PhotoShop may be used to input the metadata from aPhotoShop data file into the metadata database 415 through the metadataprocessing software 401. On the other hand, if the data file is a wordprocessing document, then an importer designed to extract metadata froma word processing document is called upon to extract the metadata fromthe word processing data file and place it into the metadata database415 through the metadata processing software 401. Typically, a pluralityof different importers may be required in order to handle the pluralityof different application programs which are used in a typical computersystem. The importers 413 may optionally include a plurality ofexporters which are capable of exporting the extracted metadata forparticular types of data files back to property sheets or other datacomponents maintained by certain application programs. For example,certain application programs may maintain some metadata for each datafile created by the program, but this metadata is only a subset of themetadata extracted by an importer from this type of data file. In thisinstance, the exporter may export back additional metadata or may simplyinsert metadata into blank fields of metadata maintained by theapplication program.

The software architecture 400 also includes a file system directory 417for the metadata. This file system directory keeps track of therelationship between the data files and their metadata and keeps trackof the location of the metadata object (e.g. a metadata file whichcorresponds to the data file from which it was extracted) created byeach importer. In one exemplary embodiment, the metadata database ismaintained as a flat file format as described below, and the file systemdirectory 417 maintains this flat file format. One advantage of a flatfile format is that the data is laid out on a storage device as a stringof data without references between fields from one metadata file(corresponding to a particular data file) to another metadata file(corresponding to another data file). This arrangement of data willoften result in faster retrieval of information from the metadatadatabase 415.

The software architecture 400 of FIG. 4 also includes find by contentsoftware 419 which is operatively coupled to a database 421 whichincludes an index of files. The index of files represents at least asubset of the data files in a storage device and may include all of thedata files in a particular storage device (or several storage devices),such as the main hard drive of a computer system. The index of files maybe a conventional indexed representation of the content of eachdocument. The find by content software 419 searches for words in thatcontent by searching through the database 421 to see if a particularword exists in any of the data files which have been indexed. The findby content software functionality is available through the metadataprocessing software 401 which provides the advantage to the user thatthe user can search concurrently both the index of files in the database421 (for the content within a file) as well as the metadata for thevarious data files being searched. The software architecture shown inFIG. 4 may be used to perform the method shown in FIG. 5 or alternativearchitectures may be used to perform the method of FIG. 5.

The method of FIG. 5 may begin in operation 501 in which a notificationof a change for a file is received. This notification may come from theOS kernel 403 which notifies the metadata processing software 401 that afile has been changed. This notification may come from sniffer softwareelements which detect new or modified files and deletion of files. Thischange may be the creation of a new file or the modification of anexisting file or the deletion of an existing file. The deletion of anexisting file causes a special ease of the processing method of FIG. 5and is not shown in FIG. 5. In the case of a deletion, the metadataprocessing software 401, through the use of the file system directory417, deletes the metadata file in the metadata database 415 whichcorresponds to the deleted file. The other types of operations, such asthe creation of a new file or the modification of an existing file,causes the processing to proceed from operation 501 to operation 503 inwhich the type of file which is the subject of the notification isdetermined. The file may be an Acrobat PDF file or an RTF wordprocessing file or a PEG image file, etc. In any case, the type of thefile is deter wined in operation 503. This may be performed by receivingfrom the OS kernel 403 the type of file along with the notification orthe metadata processing software 401 may request an identification ofthe type of file from the file system graphical user interface software405 or similar software which maintains information about the data file,such as the creator application or parent application of the data file.It will be understood that in one exemplary embodiment, the file systemgraphical user interface software 405 is the Finder program whichoperates on the Macintosh operating system. In alternative embodiments,the file system graphical user interface system may be Windows Explorerwhich operates on Microsoft's Windows operating system. After the typeof file has been determined in operation 503, the appropriate capturesoftware (e.g. one of the importers 413) is activated for the determinedfile type. The importers may be a plug-in for the particular applicationwhich created the type of file about which notification is received inoperation 501. Once activated, the importer or capture software importsthe appropriate metadata (for the particular file type) into themetadata database, such as metadata database 415 as shown in operation507. Then in operation 509, the metadata is stored in the database. Inone exemplary embodiment, it may be stored in a flat file format. Thenin operation 511, the metadata processing software 401 receives searchparameter inputs and performs a search of the metadata database (andoptionally also causes a search of non-metadata sources such as theindex of files 421) and causes the results of the search to be displayedin a user interface. This may be performed by exchanging informationbetween one of the applications, such as the software 405 or thesoftware 407 or the other applications 409 and the metadata processingsoftware 401 through the interface 411. For example, the file systemsoftware 405 may present a graphical user interface, allowing a user toinput search parameters and allowing the user to cause a search to beperformed. This information is conveyed through the interface 411 to themetadata processing software 401 which causes a search through themetadata database 415 and also may cause a search through the database421 of the indexed files in order to search for content within each datafile which has been indexed. The results from these searches areprovided by the metadata processing software 401 to the requestingapplication which, in the example given here, was the software 405, butit will be appreciated that other components of software, such as theemail software 407, may be used to receive the search inputs and toprovide a display of the search results. Various examples of the userinterface for inputting search requests and for displaying searchresults are described herein and shown in the accompanying drawings.

It will be appreciated that the notification, if done through the OSkernel, is a global, system wide notification process such that changesto any file will cause a notification to be sent to the metadataprocessing software. It will also be appreciated that in alternativeembodiments, each application program may itself generate the necessarymetadata and provide the metadata directly to a metadata databasewithout the requirement of a notification from an operating systemkernel or from the intervention of importers, such as the importers 413.Alternatively, rather than using OS kernel notifications, an embodimentmay use software calls from each application to a metadata processingsoftware which receives these calls and then imports the metadata fromeach file in response to the call.

As noted above, the metadata database 415 may be stored in a flat fileformat in order to improve the speed of retrieval of information in mostcircumstances. The flat file format may be considered to be a non-Btree, non-hash tree format in which data is not attempted to beorganized but is rather stored as a stream of data. Each metadata objector metadata file will itself contain fields, such as the fields shown inthe examples of FIGS. 3A and 3B. However, there will typically be norelationship or reference or pointer from one field in one metadata fileto the corresponding field (or another field) in the next metadata fileor in another metadata file of the same file type. FIG. 6 shows anexample of the layout in a flat file format of metadata. The format 601includes a plurality of metadata files for a corresponding plurality ofdata files. As shown in FIG. 6, metadata file 603 is metadata from file1 of application A and may be referred to as metadata file A1.Similarly, metadata file 605 is metadata from file 1 of application Band may be referred to as metadata file B1. Each of these metadata filestypically would include fields which are not linked to other fields andwhich do not contain references or pointers to other fields in othermetadata files. It can be seen from FIG. 6 that the metadata database ofFIG. 6 includes metadata files from a plurality of differentapplications (applications A, B, and C) and different files created byeach of those applications. Metadata files 607, 609, 611, and 617 areadditional metadata files created by applications A, B, and C as shownin FIG. 6.

A flexible query language may be used to search the metadata database inthe same way that such query languages are used to search otherdatabases. The data within each metadata file may be packed or evencompressed if desirable. As noted above, each metadata file, in certainembodiments, will include a persistent identifier which uniquelyidentifies its corresponding data file. This identifier remains the sameeven if the name of the file is changed or the file is modified. Thisallows for the persistent association between the particular data fileand its metadata.

User Interface Aspects

Various different examples of user interfaces for inputting searchparameters and for displaying search results are provided herein. Itwill be understood that some features from certain embodiments may bemixed with other embodiments such that hybrid embodiments may resultfrom these combinations. It will be appreciated that certain featuresmay be removed from each of these embodiments and still provide adequatefunctionality in many instances.

FIG. 7A shows a graphical user interface which is a window which may bedisplayed on a display device which is coupled to a data processingsystem such as a computer system. The window 701 includes a side barhaving two regions 703A, which is a user-configurable region, and 703B,which is a region which is specified by the data processing system.Further details in connection with these side bar regions may be foundin co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/873,661, filed Jun.21, 2004, and entitled “Methods and Apparatuses for Operating a DataProcessing System,” by inventors Donald Lindsay and Bas Ording. Thewindow 701 also includes a display region 705 which in this casedisplays the results of searches requested by the user. The window 701also includes a search parameter menu bar 707 which includesconfigurable pull down menus 713, 715, and 717. The window 701 alsoincludes a text entry region 709 which allows a user to enter text aspart of the search query or search parameters. The button 711 may be astart search button which a user activates in order to start a searchbased upon the selected search parameters. Alternatively, the system mayperform a search as soon as it receives any search parameter inputs orsearch queries from the user rather than waiting for a command to beginthe search. The window 701 also includes a title bar 729 which may beused in conjunction with a cursor control device to move, in aconventional manner, the window around a desktop which is displayed on adisplay device. The window 701 also includes a close button 734, aminimize button 735, and a resize button 736 which may be used to closeor minimize or resize, respectively, the window. The window 701 alsoincludes a resizing control 731 which allows a user to modify the sizeof the window on a display device. The window 701 further includes aback button 732 and a forward button 733 which function in a mannerwhich is similar to the back and forward buttons on a web browser, suchas Internet Explorer or Safari. The window 701 also includes viewcontrols which include three buttons for selecting three different typesof views of the content within the display region 705. When the contentsfound in a search exceed the available display area of a display region705, scroll controls, such as scroll controls 721, 722, and 723, appearwithin the window 701. These may be used in a conventional manner, forexample, by dragging the scroll bar 721 within the scroll region 721Ausing conventional graphical user interface techniques.

The combination of text entry region 709 and the search parameter menubar allow a user to specify a search query or search parameters. Each ofthe configurable pull down menus presents a user with a list of optionsto select from when the user activates the pull down menu. As shown inFIG. 7A, the user has already made a selection from the configurablepull down menu 713 to specify the location of the search, which in thiscase specifies that the search will occur on the local disks of thecomputer systems. Configurable pull down menu 715 has also been used bythe user to specify the kind of document which is to be searched for,which in this case is an image document as indicated by the configurablepull down menu 715 which indicates “images” as the selectedconfiguration of this menu and hence the search parameter which itspecifies. The configurable pull down menu 717, as shown in FIG. 7A,represents an add search parameter pull down menu. This add searchparameter pull down menu allows the user to add additional criteria tothe search query to further limit the search results. In the embodimentshown in FIG. 7A, each of the search parameters is logically ANDed in aBoolean manner. Thus the current search parameter specified by the userin the state shown in FIG. 7A searches all local disks for all images,and the user is in the middle of the process of selecting another searchcriteria by having selected the add search criteria pull down menu 717,resulting in the display of the pull down menu 719, which has aplurality of options which may be selected by the user.

FIG. 7B shows the window 701 after the user has caused the selection ofthe time option within pull down menu 719, thereby causing the displayof a submenu 719A which includes a list of possible times which the usermay select from. Thus it appears that the user wants to limit the searchto all images on all local disks within a certain period of time whichis to be specified by making a selection within the submenu 719A.

FIG. 7C shows the window 701 on the display of a data processing systemafter the user has selected a particular option (in this case “pastweek”) from the submenu 719A. If the user accepts this selection, thenthe display shown in FIG. 7D results in which the configurable pull downmenu 718 is displayed showing that the user has selected as part of thesearch criteria files that have been created or modified in the pastweek. It can be seen from FIG. 7D that the user can change theparticular time selected from this pull down menu 718 by selectinganother time period within the pull down menu 718A shown in FIG. 7D.Note that the configurable pull down menu 717, which represents an addsearch parameter menu, has now moved to the right of the configurablepull down menu 718. The user may add further search parameters bypressing or otherwise activating the configurable pull down menu 717from the search parameter menu bar 707. If the user decides that thepast week is the proper search criteria in the time category, then theuser may release the pull down menu 718A from being displayed in avariety of different ways (e.g. the user may release the mouse buttonwhich was being depressed to keep the pull down menu 718A on thedisplay). Upon releasing or otherwise dismissing the pull down menu718A, the resulting window 701 shown in FIG. 7E then appears. There areseveral aspects of this user interface shown in FIG. 7A-7E which areworthy of being noted. The search parameters or search query isspecified within the same window as the display of the search results.This allows the user to look at a single location or window tounderstand the search parameters and how they affected the displayedsearch results, and may make it easier for a user to alter or improvethe search parameters in order to find one or more files. Theconfigurable pull down menus, such as the add search parameter pull downmenu, includes hierarchical pull down menus. An example of this is shownin FIG. 7B in which the selection of the time criteria from the pulldown menu 717 results in the display of another menu, in this case asubmenu 719A which may be selected from by the user. This allows for acompact presentation of the various search parameters while keeping theinitial complexity (e.g. without submenus being displayed) at a lowerlevel. Another useful aspect of the user interface shown in FIG. 7A-7Eis the ability to reconfigure pull down menus which have previously beenconfigured. Thus, for example, the configurable pull down menu 713currently specifies the location of the search (in this case, all localdisks), however, this may be modified by selecting the pull down regionassociated with the configurable pull down menu 713, causing the displayof a menu of options indicating alternative locations which may beselected by the user. This can also be seen in FIG. 7D in which the pastweek option has been selected by the user (as indicated by “past week”being in the search parameter menu bar 707), but a menu of options shownin the pull down menu 718A allows the user to change the selected timefrom the “past week” to some other time criteria. Another useful aspectof this user interface is the ability to continue adding various searchcriteria by using the add search criteria pull down menu 717 andselecting a new criteria.

It will also be appreciated that the various options in the pull downmenus may depend upon the fields within a particular type of metadatafile. For example, the selection of “images” to be searched may causethe various fields present in the metadata for an image type file toappear in one or more pull down menus, allowing the user to searchwithin one or more of those fields for that particular type of file.Other fields which do not apply to “images” types of files may notappear in these menus in order reduce the complexity of the menus and toprevent user confusion.

Another feature of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 7A-7E. Inparticular, the side bar region 703A, which is the user-configurableportion of the side bar, includes a representation of a folder 725 whichrepresents the search results obtained from a particular search, whichsearch results may be static or they may be dynamic in that, in certaininstances, the search can be performed again to obtain results based onthe current files in the system. The folder 725 in the example shown inFIGS. 7A-7E represents a search on a local disk for all images done onDecember 10^(th). By selecting this folder in the side bar region 703A,the user may cause the display in the display region 705 of the resultsof that search. In this way, a user may retrieve a search resultautomatically by saving the search result into the side bar region 703A.One mechanism for causing a search result or a search query to be savedinto the side bar region 703A is to select the add folder button 727which appears in the bottom portion of the window 701. By selecting thisbutton, the current search result or search query is saved as a list offiles and other objects retrieved in the current search result. In thecase where the search query is saved for later use rather than thesaving of a search result, then the current search query is saved forre-use at a later time in order to find files which match the searchquery at that later time. The user may select between these twofunctionalities (saving a search result or saving a search query) by theselection of a command which is not shown.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show another aspect of a user interface feature whichmay be used with certain embodiments of the present invention. Thewindow 801 of FIG. 8A represents a display of the search results whichmay be obtained as a result of using one of the various differentembodiments of the present invention. The search results are separatedinto categories which are separated by headers 805, 807, 809, and 811which in this case represent periods of time. This particularsegmentation with headers was selected by the user's selecting theheading “date modified” using the date modified button 803 at the top ofthe window 801. An alternative selection of the kind category byselecting the button 802 at the top of the window 801A shown in FIG. 8Bresults in a different formatting of the search results which are nowcategorized by headers which indicate the types of files which wereretrieved in the search and are separated by the headings 815, 817, 819,and 821 as shown in FIG. 8B. The use of these headings in the searchresults display allows the user to quickly scan through the searchresults in order to find the file.

FIG. 9 shows another aspect of the present invention that is illustratedas part of the window 901 shown in FIG. 9. This window includes adisplay region 905 which shows the results of the search and the windowalso includes two side bar regions 903A and 903B, where the side barregion 903A is the user-configurable portion and the side bar region903B is the system controlled portion. A folder add button 927 may beselected by the user to cause the addition of a search result or asearch query to be added to the user-configurable portion of the sidebar. The window 901 also includes conventional window controls such as atitle bar or region 929 which may be used to move the window around adisplay and view select buttons 937 and maximize, minimize and resizebuttons 934, 935, and 936 respectively. The window 901 shows aparticular manner in which the results of a text-based search may bedisplayed. A text entry region 909 is used to enter text for searching.This text may be used to search through the metadata files or theindexed files or a combination of both. The display region 905 shows theresults of a search for text and includes at least two columns, 917 and919, which provide the name of the file that was found and the basis forthe match. As shown in column 919, the basis for the match may be theauthor field or a file name or a key word or comments or other datafields contained in metadata that was searched. The column 921 shows thetext that was found which matches the search parameter typed into thetext entry field 909. Another column 911 provides additional informationwith respect to the search results. In particular, this column includesthe number of matches for each particular type of category or field aswell as the total number of matches indicated in the entry 913. Thus,for example, the total number of matches found for the comments field isonly 1, while other fields have a higher number of matches.

FIG. 10 shows certain other aspects of some embodiments of the presentinvention. Window 1001 is another search result window which includesvarious fields and menus for a user to select various search parameterscar form a search query. The window 1001 includes a display region 1005which may be used to display the results of a search and auser-configurable side bar portion 1003A and a system specified side barportion 1003B. In addition, the window 1001 includes conventionalscrolling controls such as controls 1021 and 1022 and 1021A. The windowfurther includes conventional controls such as a title bar 1029 whichmay be used to move the window and view control buttons 1037 andmaximize, minimize, and resize buttons 1034, 1035, and 1036. A startsearch button 1015 is near a text entry region 1009. A first searchparameter menu bar 1007 is displayed adjacent to a second searchparameter bar 1011. The first search parameter search bar 1007 allows auser to specify the location for a particular search while two menu pulldown controls in the second search parameter menu bar 1011 allow theuser to specify the type of file using the pull down menu 1012 and thetime the file was created or last modified using the menu 1013.

The window 1001 includes an additional feature which may be very usefulwhile analyzing a search result. A user may select individual files fromwithin the display region 1005 and associate them together as onecollection. Each file may be individually marked using a specificcommand (e.g. pressing the right button on a mouse and selecting acommand from a menu which appears on the screen, which command may be“add selection to current group”) or similar such commands. Byindividually selecting such files or by selecting a group of files atonce, the user may associate this group of files into a selected groupor a “marked” group and this association may be used to perform a commonaction on all of the files in the group (e.g. print each file or vieweach file in a viewer window or move each file to a new or existingfolder, etc.). A representation of this marked group appears as a folderin the user-configurable portion 1003A. An example of such a folder isthe folder 1020 shown in the user-configurable portion 1003A. Byselecting this folder (e.g. by positioning a cursor over the folder 1020and pressing and releasing a mouse button or by pressing another button)the user, as a result of this selection, will cause the display withinthe display region 1005 of the files which have been grouped together ormarked. Alternatively, a separate window may appear showing only theitems which have been marked or grouped. This association or groupingmay be merely temporary or it may be made permanent by retaining a listof all the files which have been grouped and by keeping a folder 1020 orother representations of the grouping within the user-configurable sidebar, such as the side bar 1003A. Certain embodiments may allow multiple,different groupings to exist at the same time, and each of thesegroupings or associations may be merely temporary (e.g. they exist onlywhile the search results window is displayed), or they may be madepermanent by retaining a list of all the files which have been groupedwithin each separate group. It will be appreciated that the files withineach group may have been created from different applications. As notedabove, one of the groupings may be selected and then a user may select acommand which performs a common action (e.g. print or view or move ordelete) on all of the files within the selected group.

FIGS. 11A, 11B, 11C, and 11D show an alternative user interface forallowing a user to input search queries or search parameters. The userinterface shown in these figures appears within the window 1101 whichincludes a user-configurable side bar region 1103A and a systemspecified side bar region 1103B. The window 1101 also includestraditional window controls such as a window resizing control 1131 whichmay be dragged in a conventional graphical user interface manner toresize the window, and the window further includes scrolling controlssuch as controls 1121, 1122, and 1123. The scrolling control 1121 may,for example, be dragged within the scrolling region 1121A or a scrollwheel on a mouse or other input device may be used to cause scrollingwithin a display region 1105. Further, traditional window controlsinclude the title bar 1129 which may be used to move the window around adesktop which is displayed on a display device of a computer system andthe window also includes view buttons 1137 as well as close, minimize,and resize buttons 1134, 1135 and 1136. A back and forward button, suchas the back button 1132, are also provided to allow the user to moveback and forth in a manner which is similar to the back and forthcommands in a web browser. The window 1101 includes a search parametermenu bar 1111 which includes a “search by” pull down menu 1112 and a“sort by” pull down menu 1114. The “search by” pull down menu 1112allows a user to specify the particular search parameter by selectingfrom the options which appear in the pull down menu once it is activatedas shown in FIG. 11B. In particular, the pull down menu 1113 shows oneexample of a pull down menu when the “search by” pull down menu 1112 hasbeen activated. The “sort by” pull down menu 1114 allows a user tospecify how the search results are displayed within a display region1105. In the example shown in FIGS. 11A-11D a user has used the “sortby” pull down menu 1114 to select the “date viewed” criteria to sort thesearch results by. It should also be noted that the user may change thetype of view of the search results by selecting one of the three viewbuttons 1137. For example, a user may select an icon view which is thecurrently selected button among the view buttons 1137, or the user mayselect a list view or a column view.

FIG. 11B shows the result of the user's activation of a “search by” pulldown menu 1112 which causes the display of the menu 1113 which includesa plurality of options from which the user may choose to perform asearch by. It will be appreciated that there are a number of differentways for a user to activate the “search by” pull down menu 1112. One wayincludes the use of a cursor, such as a pointer on a display which iscontrolled by a cursor control device, such as a mouse. The cursor ispositioned over the region associated with the “search by” menu title(which is the portion within the search parameter menu bar 1111 whichcontains the words “search by”) and then the user indicates theselection of the menu title by pressing a button, such as a mouse'sbutton, to cause the pull down menu to appear, which in this case is themenu 1113 shown in FIG. 11B. At this point, the user may continue tomove the cursor to point to a particular option within the menu, such asthe “time” option. This may result in the display of a submenu to theleft or to the right of the menu 1113. This submenu may be similar tothe submenu 719A or to the menu 1214 shown in FIG. 12A. If the “kind”option is selected in the menu 1113, the submenu may include a genericlist of the different kinds of documents, such as images, photos,movies, text, music, PDF documents, email documents, etc. or the listmay include references to specific program names such as PhotoShop,Director, Excel, Word, etc. or it may include a combination of genericnames and specific names. FIG. 11C shows the result of the user havingselected PhotoShop type of documents from a submenu of the “kind” optionshown in menu 1113. This results in the display of the search parametermenu bar 1111A shown in FIG. 11C which includes a highlighted selection1111B which indicates that the PhotoShop type of documents will besearched for. The search parameter menu bar 1111 appears below thesearch parameter menu bar 1111A as shown in FIG. 11C. The user may thenspecify additional search parameters by again using the “search by” pulldown menu 1112 or by typing text into the text entry field 1109. Forexample, from the state of the window 1101 shown in FIG. 11C, the usermay select the “search by” pull down menu 1112 causing the display of amenu containing a plurality of options, such as the options shown withinthe menu 1113 or alternative options such as those which relate toPhotoShop documents (e.g. the various fields in the metadata forPhotoShop type of documents). A combination of such fields containedwithin metadata for PhotoShop type documents and other generic fields(e.g. time, file size, and other parameters) may appear in a menu, suchas the menu 1113 which is activated by selecting the “search by” pulldown menu. The user may then select another criteria such as the timecriteria. In this case, the window 1101 displays a new search parametermenu bar 1115 which allows a user to specify a particular time. The usermay select one of the times on the menu bar 1115 or may activate a pulldown menu by selecting the menu title “time,” which is shown as the menutitle 1116. The state of the window 1101 shown in FIG. 11D would thensearch for all PhotoShop documents created in the last 30 days or 7 daysor 2 days or today or at any time, depending on the particular timeperiod selected by the user.

FIGS. 12A, 12B, 12C and 12D show another example of a user interface forallowing the creation of search queries for searching metadata and otherdata and for displaying the results of the search performed using asearch query. The different implementation shown in FIGS. 12A-12D showsa user interface presentation in a column mode; this can be seen bynoting the selection of the column button, which is the rightmost buttonin the view buttons 1237 shown in FIG. 12A. The window 1201 has twocolumns 1211 and the display region 1205, while the window 1251 of FIG.12C has three columns which are columns 1257, 1259, and the displayregion 1255, and the window 1271 has three columns which are columns1277, 1279, and the display region 1275.

The window 1201 shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B includes a display region1205 which shows the results of a search; these results may be showndynamically as the user enters search parameters or the results may beshown only after the user has instructed the system to perform thesearch (e.g. by selecting a “perform search” command). The window 1201includes conventional window controls, such as a resizing control 1231,a scrolling control 1221, a title bar 1229 which may be used to move thewindow, a window close button, a window minimize button, and a windowresize button 1234, 1235, and 1236, respectively. The window 1201 alsoincludes a user-configurable side bar region 1203A and a systemspecified side bar region 1203B. It can be seen from FIG. 12A that abrowse mode has been selected as indicated by the highlighted “browse”icon 1203C in the system specified side bar region 1203B. The window1201 also includes a text entry region 1209, which a user may use toenter text for a search, and the window 1201 also includes view selectorbuttons 1237.

A column 1211 of window 1201 allows a user to select various searchparameters by selecting one of the options which in turn causes thedisplay of a submenu that corresponds to the selected option. In thecase of FIG. 12A, the user has selected the “kind” option 1212 and thenhas used the submenu 1214 to select the “photos” option from thesubmenu, resulting in an indicator 1213 (photos) to appear in the column1211 under the “kind” option as shown in FIG. 12A. It can also be seenthat the user has previously selected the “time” option in the column1211 and has selected from a submenu brought up when the “time” optionwas selected the “past week” search parameter. When the user hasfinished making selections of the various options and suboptions fromboth the column 1112 and any of the corresponding submenus which appear,then the display showed in FIG. 12B appears. Note that the submenus areno longer present and that the user has completed the selection of thevarious options and suboptions which specify the search parameters.Column 1211 in FIG. 12B provides feedback to the user indicating theexact nature of the search query (in this case a search for all photosdated in the past week), and the results which match the search queryare shown in the display region 1205.

FIGS. 12C and 12D show an alternative embodiment in which the submenuswhich appear on a temporary basis in the embodiment of FIGS. 12A and 12Bare replaced by an additional column which does not disappear after aselection is made. In particular, the column 1259 of the window 1251functions in the same manner as the submenu 1214 except that it remainswithin the window 1251 after a selection is made (wherein the submenu1214 is removed from the window after the user makes the selection fromthe submenu). The column 1279 of window 1271 of FIG. 12D is similar tothe column 1259. The window 1251 includes a side bar which has auser-configurable side bar region 1253A and a system defined side barregion 1253B. The system specified side bar region 1253B includes a“browse” selection region 1254 which has a clear button 1258 which theuser may select to clear the current search query. The window 1271 ofFIG. 12D provides an alternative interface for clearing the searchquery. The window 1271 also includes a user configurable side bar region1273A and a system specified side bar region 1273B, but the clearbutton, rather than being with the “search” region 1274 is at the top ofthe column 1277. The user may clear the current search parameter byselecting the button 1283 as shown in FIG. 12D.

FIG. 13A shows another embodiment of a window 1301 which displays searchresults within a display region 1302. The window 1301 may be acloseable, minimizeable, resizeable, and moveable window having aresizing control 1310, a title bar 1305 which may be used to move thewindow, a text entry region 1306 and a user configurable portion 1303,and a system specified portion 1304. The window 1301 further includesbuttons for selecting various views, including an icon view, a listview, and a column view. Currently, the list view button 1316 has beenselected, causing the display of the search results in a list viewmanner within the display region 1302. It can be seen that the text(“button”) has been entered into the text entry region 1306 and this hascaused the system to respond with the search results shown in thedisplay region 1302. The user has specified a search in every locationby selecting “everywhere” button 1317. Further, the user has searchedfor any kind of document by selecting the “kind” option from the pulldown menu 1315 and by selecting the “any” option in the pull down menu1319. The where or location slice 1307 includes a “+” button which maybe used to add further search parameters, and similarly, the slice 1308includes a “+” and a “−” button for adding or deleting searchparameters, respectively. The slice 1307 further includes a “save”button 1309 which causes the current search query to be saved in theform of a folder which is added to the user configurable portion 1303for use later. This is described further below and may be referred to asa “smart folder.” The search input user interface shown in FIGS. 13A and13B is available within, in certain embodiments, each and every windowcontrolled by a graphical user interface file management system, such asa Finder program which runs on the Macintosh or Windows Explorer whichruns on Microsoft Windows. This interface includes the text entry region1306 as well as the slices 1307 and 1308.

The window 1301 shown in FIG. 13B shows the activation of a menu byselecting the search button 1323A, causing a display of a menu havingtwo entries 1323 and 1325. Entry 1323 displays recently performedsearches so that a user may merely recall a prior search by selectingthe prior search and cause the prior search to be run again. The menuselection 1325 allows the user to clear the list of recent searches inthe menu.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C show examples of another window in a graphicaluser interface file system, such as the Finder which runs on theMacintosh operating system. These windows show the results of aparticular search and also the ability to save and use a smart folderwhich saves a prior search. The window 1401 shown in FIG. 14A includes adisplay region 1403, a user configurable region 1405, a smart folder1406, a system specified region 1407, an icon view button 1409, a listview button 1410, and a column view button 1411. The window 1401 alsoincludes a text entry region 1415 and a location slice 1416 which may beused to specify the location for the search, which slice also includes asave button 1417. Additional slices below the slice 1416 allow the userto specify further details with respect to the search, in this casespecifying types of documents which are images which were last viewedthis week. The user has set the search parameters in this manner byselecting the “kind” option from the pull down menu 1419 and byselecting the “images” type from the pull down menu 1420 and byselecting the “last viewed” option from pull down menu 1418 and byselecting “this week” from the pull down menu 1422. The user has alsoselected “everywhere” by selecting the button 1421 so that the searchwill be performed on all disks and storage devices connected to thissystem. The results are shown within the display region 1403. The usercan then save the search query by selecting the “save” button 1417 andmay name the saved search query as “this week's images” to produce thesmart folder 1406 as shown in the user configurable portion 1405. Thisallows the user to repeat this search at a later time by merelyselecting the smart folder 1406 which causes the system to perform a newsearch again, and all data which matches the search criteria will bedisplayed within the display region 1403. Thus, after several weeks, arepeating of this search by selecting the smart folder 1406 will producean entirely different list if none of the files displayed in the displayregion 1403 of FIG. 14A are viewed in the last week from the time inwhich the next search is performed by selecting the smart folder 1406.

FIG. 14B shows a way in which a user may sort or further search withinthe search results specified by a saved search, such as a smart folder.In the case of FIG. 14B, the user has selected the smart folder 1406 andhas then entered text “jpg” 1425 in the text entry region 1415. This hascaused the system to filter or further limit the search results obtainedfrom the search query saved as the smart folder 1406. Thus, PhotoShopfiles and other files such as TIF files and GIF files are excluded fromthe search results displayed within the display region 1403 of FIG. 14Bbecause the user has excluded those files by adding an additional searchcriteria specified by the text 1425 in the text entry region 1415. Itcan be seen that the “jpg” text entry is ANDed logically with the othersearch parameters to achieve the search results displayed in the displayregion 1403. It can also be seen that the user has selected the iconview by selecting the icon view button 1409. Thus, it is possible for auser to save a search query and use it later and to further limit theresults of the search query by performing a search on the results of thesearch query to further limit the search results.

FIG. 14C shows the window 1401 and shows the search results displayedwithin the display region 1403, where the results are based upon thesaved search specified by the smart folder 1406. The user has caused apull down menu 1427 to appear by selecting the pull down region 1427A.The pull down region 1427 includes several options which a user mayselect. These options include hiding the search criteria or saving thesearch (which is similar to selecting the button 1417) or showing viewoptions or opening the selected file. This allows the user, for example,to hide the search criteria, thereby causing the slice 1416 and theother search parameters to be removed from the window 1401 which is amoveable, resizeable, minimizeable, and closeable window.

FIG. 14D shows an example of a user interface which allows the user tospecify the appearance of a smart folder, such as the smart folder 1406.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C, and 15D show an example of a system wide searchinput user interface and search result user interface. In one particularexemplary embodiment, these user interfaces are available on the entiresystem for all applications which run on the system and all files andmetadata, and even address book entries within an address book program,such as a personal information manager, and calendar entries within acalendar program, and emails within an email program, etc. In oneexemplary embodiment, the system begins performing the search and beginsdisplaying the results of the search as the user types text into a textentry field, such as the text entry field 1507. The search results areorganized by categories and are displayed as a short list which isintentionally abbreviated in order to present only a selected number ofthe most relevant (scored) matches or hits to the search query. The usercan ask for the display of all the hits by selecting a command, such asthe “show all” command 1509. FIG. 15A shows a portion of a displaycontrolled by a data processing system. This portion includes a menu bar1502 which has at its far end a search menu command 1505. The user canselect the search menu command by positioning a cursor, using a mouse,for example, over the search menu command 1505 and by pressing a buttonor by otherwise activating or selecting a command. This causes a displayof a text entry region 1507 into which a user can enter text. In theexample shown in FIG. 15A, which is a portion of the display, the userhas entered the text “shakeit” causing the display of a search resultregion immediately below a “show all” command region 1509 which isitself immediately below the text entry region 1507. It can be seen thatthe hits or matches are grouped into categories (“documents” and “PDFdocuments”) shown by categories 1511 and 1513 within the search resultregion 1503. FIG. 15B shows another example of a search. In this case, alarge number of hits was obtained (392 hits), only a few of which areshown in the search result region 1503. Again, the hits are organized bycategories 1511 and 1513. Each category may be restricted in terms ofthe number of items displayed within the search result region 1503 inorder to permit the display of multiple categories at the same timewithin the search result region. For example, the number of hits in thedocuments category may greatly exceed the available display space withinthe search result region 1503, but the hits for this category arelimited to a predetermined or dynamically determinable number of entrieswithin the search result region 1503 for the category 1511. Anadditional category, “top hit” is selected based on a scoring orrelevancy using techniques which are known in the art. The user mayselect the “show all” command 1509 causing the display of a window, suchas window 1601 shown in FIG. 16A. FIG. 15C shows a display of agraphical user interface of one embodiment of the invention whichincludes the menu bar 1502 and the search menu command 1505 on the menubar 1502. FIG. 15D shows another example of the search result region1503 which appeared after a search of the term “safari” was entered intothe text entry region 1507. It can be seen from the search result region1503 of FIG. 15D that the search results are again grouped intocategories. Another search result window 1520 is also shown in the userinterface of FIG. 15D. It can be seen that application programs areretrieved as part of the search results, and a user may launch any oneof these application programs by selecting it from the search resultregion, thereby causing the program to be launched.

FIGS. 16A and 16B show examples of search result windows which may becaused to appear by selecting the “show all” command 1509 in FIG. 15A or15B. Alternatively, these windows may appear as a result of the userhaving selected a “find” command or a some other command indicating thata search is desired. Moreover, the window 1601 shown in FIGS. 16A and16B may appear in response to either of the selection of a show allcommand or the selection of a find command. The window 1601 includes atext entry region 1603, a group by menu selection region 1605, a sort bymenu selection region 1607, and a where menu selection region 1609. Thegroup by selection region 1605 allows a user to specify the manner inwhich the items in the search results are grouped according to. In theexample shown in FIG. 16A, the user has selected the “kind” option fromthe group by menu selection region 1605, causing the search results tobe grouped or sorted according to the kind or type of document or file.It can be seen that the type of file includes “html” files, image files,PDF files, source code files, and other types of files as shown in FIG.16A. Each type or kind of document is separated from the other documentsby being grouped within a section and separated by headers from theother sections. Thus, headers 1611, 1613, 1615, 1617, 1619, 1621, and1623 designate each of the groups and separate one group from the othergroups. This allows a user to focus on evaluating the search resultsaccording to certain types of documents. Within each group, such as thedocument groups or the folder groups, the user has specified that theitems are to be sorted by date, because the user has selected the dateoption within the sort by menu region 1607. The user has also specifiedthat all storage locations are to be searched by selecting “everywhere”from the where menu selection region 1609. Each item in the searchresult list includes an information button 1627 which may be selected toproduce the display of additional information which may be availablefrom the system. An example of such additional information is shown inFIG. 17 in which a user has selected the information button 1627 foritem 1635, resulting in the display of an image 1636 corresponding tothe item as well as additional information 1637. Similarly, the user hasselected the information button for another item 1630 to produce thedisplay of an image of the item 1631 as well as additional information1632. The user may remove this additional information from the displayby selecting the close button 1628 which causes the display of theinformation for item 1635 to revert to the appearance for that itemshown in FIG. 16A. The user may collapse an entire group to hide theentries or search results from that group by selecting the collapsebutton 1614 shown in FIG. 16A, thereby causing the disappearance of theentries in this group as shown in FIG. 16B. The user may cause theseitems to reappear by selecting the expand button 1614A as shown in FIG.16B to thereby revert to the display of the items as shown in FIG. 16A.

The search results user interface shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B presentsonly a limited number of matches or hits within each category. In theparticular example of these figures, only the five top (most relevant ormost highly sorted) hits are displayed. This can be seen by noticing theentry at the bottom of each list within a group which specifies how manymore hits are within that group; these hits can be examined by selectingthis indicator, such as indicator 1612, which causes the display of allof the items in the documents category or kind for the search for“button” which was entered into the text entry region 1603. Furtherexamples of this behavior are described below and are shown inconjunction with FIGS. 18A and 18B. It will be appreciated that window1601 is a closeable and resizable and moveable window and includes aclose button and a resizing control 1625A.

FIGS. 18A and 18B illustrate another window 1801 which is very similarto the window 1601. The window 1801 includes a text entry region 1803, agroup by menu selection region 1805, a sort by menu selection region1807, and a where menu selection region 1809, each of which function ina manner which is similar to the regions 1605, 1607, and 1609respectively of FIG. 16A. Each item in a list view within the window1801 includes an information button 1827, allowing a user to obtainadditional information beyond that listed for each item shown in thewindow 1801. The window 1801 further includes headers 1811, 1813, 1815,1817, 1819, 1821, and 1823 which separate each group of items, groupedby the type or kind of document, and sorted within each group by date,from the other groups. A collapse button 1814 is available for each ofthe headers. The embodiment shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B shows the abilityto switch between several modes of viewing the information. For example,the user may display all of the hits within a particular group byselecting the indicator 1812 shown in FIG. 18A which results in thedisplay of all of the images files within the window 1801 within theregion 1818A. The window is scrollable, thereby allowing the user toscroll through all the images. The user can revert back to the listingof only five of the most relevant images by selecting the “show top 5”button 1832 shown in FIG. 18B. Further, the user can select between alist view or an icon view for the images portion shown in FIGS. 18A and18B. The user may select the list view by selecting the list view button1830 or may select the icon view by selecting the icon view button 1831.The list view for the images group is shown in FIG. 16A and the iconview for the images group is shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B. It can be seenthat within a single, moveable, resizable, closeable search resultwindow, that there are two different views (e.g. a list view and an iconview) which are concurrently shown within the window. For example, thePDF documents under the header 1819 are displayed in a list view whilethe images under the header 1817 are displayed in an icon view in FIGS.18A and 18B. It can also be seen from FIGS. 18A and 18B that each imageis shown with a preview which may be capable of live resizing asdescribed in a patent application entitled “Live Content Resizing” byinventors Steve Jobs, Steve Lemay, Jessica Kahn, Sarah Wilkin, DavidHyatt, Jens Alfke, Wayne Loofbourrow, and Bertrand Serlet, filed on thesame date as this application, and being assigned to the assignee of thepresent inventions described herein, and which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

FIG. 19A shows another example of a search result window which issimilar to the window 1601. The window 1901 shown in FIG. 19A includes atext entry region 1903 and a group by menu selection region 1905 and asort by menu selection region 1907 and a where menu selection region1908. Further, the window includes a close button 1925 and a resizingcontrol 1925A. Text has been entered into the text entry region 1903 toproduce the search results shown in the window 1901. The search resultsagain are grouped by a category selected by a user which in this case isthe people options 1906. This causes the headers 1911, 1913, 1915, and1917 to show the separation of the groups according to names of people.Within each group, the user has selected to sort by the date of theparticular file or document. The user interface shown in FIG. 19A allowsa user to specify an individual's name and to group by people to lookfor communications between two people, for example. FIG. 19B showsanother way in which a user can group a text search (“imran”) in amanner which is different from that shown in FIG. 19A. In the case ofFIG. 19B, the user has selected a flat list from the group by menuselection region 1905 and has selected “people” from the sort by menuregion 1907. The resulting display in window 1901A is without headersand thus it appears as a flat list.

FIG. 19C shows the user interface of another search result window 1930which includes a text entry region 1903 and the selection regions 1905,1907, and 1908 along with a scrolling control 1926. The results shown inthe window 1930 have been grouped by date and sorted within each groupby date. Thus, the headers 1932, 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1940 specify timeperiods such as when the document was last modified (e.g. last modifiedtoday, or yesterday, or last week). Also shown within the search resultswindow 1930 is the information button 1942 which may be selected toreveal further information, such as an icon 1945 and additionalinformation 1946 as shown for one entry under the today group. Thisadditional information may be removed by selecting the contractionbutton 1944.

FIG. 19D shows a search result window 1950 in which a search for thetext string “te” is grouped by date but the search was limited to a“home” folder as specified in the where menu selection region 1908. Timespecific headers 1952, 1954, 1956, and 1958 separate items within onegroup from the other groups as shown in FIG. 19D.

FIG. 19E shows an alternative embodiment of a search result window. Inthis embodiment, the window 1970 includes elements which are similar towindow 1901 such as the selection regions 1905, 1907, and a scrollingcontrol 1926 as well as a close button 1925 and a resizing control1925A. The search result window 1970 further includes a “when” menuselection region 1972 which allows the user to specify a searchparameter based on time in addition to the text entered into the textentry region 1903. It can be seen from the example shown in FIG. 19Ethat the user has decided to group the search results by the categoryand to sort within each group by date. This results in the headers 1973,1975, 1977, and 1979 as shown in FIG. 19E.

FIG. 20 shows an exemplary method of operating a system wide menu forinputting search queries, such as the system wide menu available byselecting the search menu command 1505 shown in FIG. 15A or 15B, or 15C.In operation 2001, the system displays a system wide menu for inputtingsearch queries. This may be the search menu command 1505. The user, inoperation 2003, inputs a search, and as the search query is beinginputted, the system begins performing and begins displaying the searchresults before the user finishes inputting the search query. This givesimmediate feedback and input to the user as the user enters thisinformation. The system is, in operation 2005, performing a searchthrough files, metadata for the files, emails within an email program,address book entries within an address book program, calendar entrieswithin a calendar program, etc. The system then, in operation 2007,displays an abbreviated (e.g. incomplete) list of hits if there are morethan a certain number of hits. An example of this abbreviated listing isshown in FIG. 15B. The listing may be sorted by relevance and segregatedinto groups such as categories or types of documents. Then in operation2009, the system receives a command from the user to display all thehits and in operation 2011 the system displays the search resultswindow, such as the window 1601 shown in FIG. 16A. This window may havethe ability to display two different types of views, such as an iconview and a list view within the same closeable, resizable, and moveablewindow. It will be appreciated that the searching, which is performed asthe user is typing and the displaying of results as the user is typingmay include the searching through the metadata files created frommetadata extracted from files created by many different types ofsoftware programs.

FIGS. 21, and 22A, 22B, 22C, and 22D will now be referred to whiledescribing another aspect of the inventions. This aspect relates to amethod of selecting a group of files, such as a group of individual datafiles. In an exemplary method of this aspect, a data processing systemreceives a selection of a plurality of items, such as data files,folders (e.g. graphical user interface representations ofsubdirectories), application programs or a combination of one or more ofthese items. This selection may be performed by one of the manyconventional ways to select a plurality of items such as (a) positioninga cursor at each item individually (e.g. through the movement of amouse) and indicating a selection individually by, for example, pressingand releasing a button, such as a mouse's button; (b) pointing a cursorat a first item in a list and indicating a selection of the first itemand pointing the cursor at a last item in a list of items and indicatinga selection of all items from the first item to the last item in thelist; (c) drawing a selection rectangle by a dragging operation of thecursor, etc. Thus operation 2101 shown in FIG. 21 receives one or moreinputs indicating a selection of a plurality of items. The system inoperation 2103 receives a command requesting both the creation of a newstorage facility (e.g. a folder) and an association of the plurality ofitems with the new storage facility. While the operation 2103 is shownfollowing operation 2101, in certain embodiments operation 2103 mayprecede operation 2101. The association of operation 2103 may be a copyor a move operation. For example, the user may select multiple items andthen command the system to move those items from their existinglocations to a new folder which is created in one operation as a resultof the move and create new folder command. In response to the commandreceived in operation 2103, the system creates a new storage facility,such as a new folder, with a predetermined directory path name or a userspecified path name and the system further associates the selectedplurality of items with the new storage facility. This association maybe either a move or a copy operation. A copy operation would typicallyinvolve making a copy of each selected item and storing the item with apath name that reflects the storage of the item within the new folderhaving a predetermined directory path name or a user specified directorypath name. A move operation, in which the items are moved into the newfolder, may merely change the path names associated with each of theselected items (rather than making a copy of the items) which changedpath names will reflect the new file system location (e.g. within thesubdirectory of the new folder) of the selected items.

FIGS. 22A-22D show one example of the method of FIG. 21. A desktop 2201on a display device is shown containing multiple windows and also anicon 2227 on the desktop. A cursor 2211 is also shown on the desktop.The windows 2203, 2205, and 2207 each contain a plurality of items shownas icons. In particular, window 2203 includes a data file represented byicon 2215 in a folder (e.g. a graphical representation of a subdirectoryin a file storage system) represented by icon 2217. The window 2205includes a program icon 2223 and a document icon 2219 and anotherdocument icon 2225 and a folder icon 2221. The window 2207 shows a listview of several files including “File B.” The user may then, using thecursor 2211 or using other conventional user interface techniques,select multiple items. This may be done with one input or more inputswhich indicate the selection of multiple items. FIG. 22B shows theresult of the user having selected icons 2215, 2217, 2223, 2225, 2227,and “File B” in window 2207. It can be seen that the cursor 2211 ispositioned adjacent to the icon 2225 at this point in the operation.Then the user, after having selected a plurality of items, may invokethe command referred to in operation 2103. An example of this is shownin FIG. 22C which represents a portion of the desktop 2101, whichportion is designated 2201A as shown in FIG. 22C. The user has caused apop up menu 2230 to appear, which pop up menu includes three options2231, 2232, and 2233. Option 2231 would allow a user to move all theselected items into the trash (e.g. delete them) while options 2232 and2233 relate to the command referred to in operation 2103 of FIG. 21. Inparticular, option 2232 is a command which is selectable by the user tocreate a new folder and, in the same operation, move the items whichhave been selected into the new folder. Option 2233 is a command whichallows the user to, in one operation, create a new folder and copy theselected items into the new folder. In the example shown in FIGS.22A-22D, the user will select option 2232, thereby causing the system tocreate a new storage facility, such as a new folder with a predetermineddirectory name (e.g. “new folder”) or alternatively, a user specifiedpath name. This result is shown in FIG. 22D in which the desktop 2201now includes a new window labeled “new folder” which represents andshows the contents of this new folder, which is also shown as the folder2253 which is a graphical user interface representation of this newfolder.

It will be appreciated that this method may employ various alternatives.For example, a window may appear after the command option 2232 or 2233has been selected, and this window asks for a name for the new folder.This window may display a default name “new folder”) in case the userdoes not enter a new name. Alternatively, the system may merely give thenew folder or new storage facility a default path name. Also, the systemmay merely create the new folder and move or copy the items into the newfolder without showing the new window as shown in FIG. 22D.

The indexing of the full text content of user files on a data processingsystem can be computationally time consuming. For example, the indexingof the full content of user files for the purpose of creating an indexdatabase that represents the full content of the files that have beenindexed can take considerable computation time as well as considerablestorage input/output (I/O) time in reading and writing data to a storagedevice, such as a hard drive of a data processing system. This mayimpact a user who is attempting to use the system while the system isautomatically indexing user files. Similarly, the importation ofmetadata from user files into a metadata database can also takeconsiderable computation time and considerable input/output (I/O) time.Some directories and files are uninteresting to users, and thus theindexing or importation of such directories and files can often beavoided. Avoiding the indexing and/or importation of a file or an entiredirectory of files can potentially save significant processing overheadin a data processing system. Further, some operations which imply a needfor an importation or indexing may be redundant, and thus it may bepossible to avoid extra work for those operations. The techniquesdescribed herein may be used alone or in a combination of thetechniques. A combination of two or more techniques described herein,which include filtering, reducing of the number of notifications by acoalescing mechanism and by establishing an order for scanning, whichmay be referred to as the use of “probe points,” may be used together toreduce the amount of computation time and I/O time required to performindexing of user files and to add (e.g. import) metadata from user filesinto a metadata database. These techniques may be particularly usefulfor removable volumes. A removable volume may be considered to be astorage volume which can be easily electrically coupled to a first dataprocessing system (e.g. to a first computer) and used to read data fromthe storage volume and/or write data to the storage volume while it iscoupled to the first data processing system and then it can be easilyelectrically uncoupled from the first data processing system andelectrically coupled to a second data processing system to also read andwrite data to the storage volume while it is coupled to the second dataprocessing system. A USB flash drive and a USB, bus powered hard driveare examples of a removable volume. The methods of the inventions can beimplemented on both non-removable storage volumes (e.g. those whichrequire opening the case of a computer system to remove the volume) andremovable storage volumes.

FIG. 23 shows an example of a method which combines the use of probepoints, filtering and coalescing of notifications. It will beappreciated that there are often two distinct aspects involved in theuse of a data processing system; in particular, a volume (which may be aremovable volume) which has not been indexed or which needs to bere-indexed may require a considerable amount of activity which includesscanning for files to index and also indexing of the files. Anotheraspect relates to user modifications to existing files which havealready been indexed or imported into an index database or a metadatadatabase respectively. These modifications will cause notifications tobe made in order to cause the updating of metadata (for the files thathave been changed) in the metadata database and in order to cause theupdating of the index database. It will be appreciated that FIG. 23shows a particular sequence of operations but that other sequences mayalso be utilized in alternative embodiments. In operation 2301, thesystem determines an order of scanning of the files for indexing. Thisorder typically places the highest priority on those locations which aremost relevant to a user, such as a user's home folder or all the users'home folders and then document folders and then the desktop and thenother folders which have been created by the user or users. The lowestpriority locations would typically be operating system directories, suchas folders, which typically do not contain user created or user usefuldata. The order may, either in addition to these locations or as analternative to using these locations, be based on data indicating auser's interest in files, such as data which recorded (e.g. by recordingpathnames) which files or directories a user viewed or otherwiseaccessed, and the order may be based on frequency or recency of theuser's access. Normally, system files which are invisible to a user arenot included in the order; invisible files or directories are marked sothat they are not displayed to the user in a normal file viewer such asthe Finder in Macintosh 10.3. This order determined in operation 2301normally would specify the order of scanning for files to determinewhether there are any files that need to be indexed. As the scanningproceeds to discover files which need to be indexed, rules may be usedto filter the files to determine whether they should be indexed.Operation 2303 illustrates the use of such rules to decide whether thefiles should be indexed. In certain exemplary embodiments files in thetrash or recycle bin and files in temporary directories, such asdirectories which are created by a program or the operating system tostore temporary files which will be discarded automatically by thesystem or the application program should not be indexed as they are notinteresting to a user. Further, “invisible” files and operating systemfiles should not normally be indexed. One technique for the use of theserules is to scan through the path name of a file to determine if thefile is a system file or in a temporary directory or in the trash orrecycle bin.

The combination of techniques which is represented by FIG. 23 alsoincludes the coalescing of notifications which are used to cause theupdating of a metadata database and/or an index database. The coalescingof notifications typically involves combining a first set ofnotifications into a smaller set of notifications, which may be asingle, combined notification. This is shown in operation 2305 in whichnotifications, such as notifications from an operating system kernel asdescribed above, are coalesced into a smaller number of notifications.Also as illustrated by operation 2305, the notifications may themselvesbe filtered using the rules described above or optionally separate ruleswhich may be different than the rules used to filter for scanning andindexing of the full content of a file. The combining of severalnotifications into a smaller number of notifications, such as onenotification derived from ten notifications, will typically improve theperformance of the data processing system. After the notifications havebeen coalesced and filtered and after the scanning of files according toa certain order has been performed, then operation 2307 may be performedin which the indexing of the full content of the files which have beenfiltered is performed to create or add to an index database of the files(representing the full content of the files) and metadata from the filesis imported from the files which have caused notifications to begenerated in order to update the metadata database. It will beappreciated that the scanning which occurs to determine whether thereare files which need to be indexed may also cause the importing ofmetadata from the files being scanned into a metadata database. Forexample, if a removable storage device, such as a removable hard driveis first attached to a data processing system which includes thefunctionality described herein, the data processing system may scan thehard drive to determine that files have not been indexed and themetadata from the files has not been imported into a metadata database.Thus, the scanning of the files on that hard drive may cause both theimporting of metadata from the files into a metadata database as well asthe indexing of the full text content of the files to create an indexdatabase representing the full content of the indexed files. It will beappreciated that in alternative embodiments, a subset of the filtering,coalescing, and determining of the order of scanning may be utilizedrather than the full set of operations. For example, an alternativeembodiment may employ filtering and coalescing without the use of probepoints (which is one exemplary implementation used in the determinationof order of scanning).

FIG. 24 shows an exemplary embodiment of one of the aspects of theinventions described herein. This embodiment utilizes filtering in orderto determine whether files should be indexed in order to produce anindex database of the content of the files that have been indexed. Thisparticular method may be performed independently of the other methodsdescribed herein or may be performed in combination with one or more ofthe other methods, such as the filtering of notifications as in FIG. 26.Operation 2401 determines whether all files within a directory and/orspecific files within a directory should be indexed. There are numeroustechniques which may be utilized to make this determination. Forexample, the path name of the file may be compared to predetermined pathnames to determine whether the file is stored in an operating systemdirectory or in a temporary directory or a trash directory. If it isdetermined in operation 2401 that the file is to be indexed, then it isdetermined that it is filtered “in”, which means that the file will beindexed in operation 2403 and the result of that indexing will be addedto the index database in operation 2405.

FIG. 25 is an exemplary method which provides a more specific exampleabout how filtering maybe performed. Default rules, based on the type ofvolume, as well as optional user supplied rules are used to build afilter engine (which may be implemented in software). The default rulesfor a bootable volume may differ from the default rules for a generaldisk or a specialized disk such as an iPod device. The filteringattempts to determine the locations of user home directories fromdifferent volumes so that correct filtering can be employed. It may evenattempt to correctly map through aliases and links to find user homedirectories on unexpected disks and employ the correct filtering rulesin that case. The filtering engine can be thought of as a form of a bytecode which is interpreted by the program as part of the evaluation ofthe candidate file. Candidate files are presented in the form of paths,and the byte code is interpreted as the path is scanned and decisionsare made as to which rule is applicable for the path. The path ischecked character by character until the entire path is matched or thereis a mismatch. The result will be the result defined for the last fullymatched element of the path. If a result is not defined for that part ofthe path, the result will be inherited from the last result definedthrough that path. The results from this process would normally befiltered in (meaning the file should be indexed or metadata from thefile should be imported) or filtered out, meaning the file should not beindexed and/or metadata from the file should not be imported into ametadata database. Alternatively, the results from this process could bea tentative decision of filtered in or filtered out, with the finaldecision being delayed. Follow on filtering may be pursued after theinitial results. If, for example, it is determined that the path is fora user home directory, then a more specific filtering engine which isdesigned for user home directories may be employed in filtering thefiles within the user home directories.

The exemplary method of FIG. 25 begins in operation 2501 in which pathnames containing files which should not be indexed are determined. Thisdetermination of path names may be for a certain type of volume, such asa bootable volume rather than a non-bootable volume because the types ofpath names differ between the two volumes. For example, a bootablevolume will typically include operating system files which are requiredin order to boot a data processing system while non-bootable volumeswill not include these files. Thus, the path names which are determinedin operation 2501 will differ depending on the type of volume. In theexample of operation 2501, files which should not be indexed includeinvisible files, operating system files, files in the trash directory,and files in temporary directories which were created by the dataprocessing system automatically. Rules may then be created in operation2503 for a given type of volume. These rules are used in filtering todetermine whether files should be indexed or have their metadataimported into a metadata database. A subset of rules may exist forspecific directories, such as a user home directory as indicated above.The files are scanned through in operation 2505 using the rules.Optionally, the scanning may proceed in an order which is specified byprobe points which are discussed herein. In operation 2507, it isdetermined whether, based on the rules, a file is to be indexed and/orhave its metadata imported into a metadata database. As shown inoperation 2507, if the file is to be indexed, then the file'sidentifier, such as a persistent, unique identification number, is addedto a “to be indexed” queue stored in a nonvolatile storage. Optionally,a transaction log may be employed for that nonvolatile storage system tocreate a log of write transactions to the “to be indexed” queue on thenonvolatile storage system. In this manner, the queue may be preservedthrough the use of the log which maintains a record of writetransactions to the queue stored on the nonvolatile storage. Typically,the nonvolatile storage would be the volume, such as a hard drive orremovable hard drive, which is being indexed. This transaction log maybe implemented as a simple transaction log, without the use of a journalfile system, or it may be implemented as the records in a journal of ajournal file system which is ACID (Atomicity; Consistency; Isolation,and Durability) compliant.

FIG. 26 shows an exemplary method in which filtering is employed todetermine whether metadata from a file should be imported into ametadata database. It will be appreciated that this method may beperformed independently of and separately of other methods describedherein or may be employed in combination with other methods, such as thefiltering of files for indexing operations, an example of which is shownin FIG. 24, Operation 2601 involves receiving notifications about afile, such as an existing file which has been modified or a new filewhich has been created. In operation 2603 it is determined how to filterthe notification. In particular, filter rules may be employed todetermine whether to filter the file “in” or filter the file “out”. If afile is filtered in, then metadata from the file will be imported intothe metadata database, and if the file is filtered out, then metadatafrom the file will not be imported into the metadata database. Operation2605 shows that if the filtering determines that the file's metadata isto be imported, then the data is imported into the metadata database.The rules used to filter in operation 2603 may be similar to the rulesused to filter in operation 2505.

FIG. 27 shows an exemplary method of using probe points which establisha sequence for scanning through locations to determine whether there arefiles to index and/or to determine whether there are files which need tohave their metadata imported into a metadata database. The method ofFIG. 27 may be performed independently of other methods described hereinor in a combination with of one or more of the other methods. Operation2701 includes the setting of priority among locations on a storagedevice. This priority specifies an order in which to scan the files forindexing or for the importation of metadata into a metadata database ora combination of the indexing and importing. The order is typicallybased on user relevance of the files and assumptions of where usersstore their files. Examples of these locations have been described andinclude a user's home folder, user created folders outside the homefolder and the desktop. Operation 2703 shows that the system scansthrough the locations, according to the order, to determine whetherfiles should be indexed or whether files should have their metadataimported into a metadata database or a combination of the indexing andimportation. In one exemplary embodiment, the order may specify theuser's home folder first and then the user created folders outside thehome folder and then the desktop and then other locations, such as otheruser created folders. Operation 2705 of FIG. 27 shows that as the scanreveals files to index (or files to have their metadata imported into ametadata database) the files are added to a “to be” indexed queue(and/or a metadata import queue), which resembles a FIFO buffer. The useof what may be referred to as “probe points” as shown in FIG. 27typically includes a final probe point which is typically a catch allthat scans and indexes everything else starting at the root of the diskor volume. This final probe point attempts to capture what has notalready been indexed as the remainder of the volume is scanned. As thescanning comes upon locations covered by earlier probe points, andfiltering can tell the scanner that this place is filtered in, and sinceit is also a higher priority probe point, it is known not to re-scanthat location.

It will be appreciated that the filtering technique described herein mayalso be used as a plug in by another program to use.

While filtering provides for a way to reduce the impact of indexing orimportation of files into an indexing database or a metadata databaserespectively, other techniques, such as the coalescing of notificationsmay also be employed. FIGS. 28, 29, and 30 relate to various embodimentsin which notifications are coalesced. Coalescing is useful as there willsome times be a series of operations which would individually requireimporting of metadata from files into the metadata database. Donenaively, this will result in redundant work as consecutive operationsre-import metadata from the same file. Coalescing of notifications mayalso be used when indexing files into an index database.

FIG. 28 shows a general example according to certain embodiments inwhich notifications may be coalesced. This general example relates tocases where there is one or more groups of related objects, such as apackage of files which is typically a hierarchy of files presented tothe user as a single file, such as an application program written forthe Macintosh 10.3 operating system. In operation 2803, it is determinedthat a group of related objects, such as a package of files, has beenstored onto a storage medium. For example, the package was copied on thestorage medium thereby creating a duplicate copy of the package,potentially in a different location than the original location of thepackage of files. In operation 2805, a set of notifications such as asingle notification is made to cause the updating of the metadatadatabase, and in response in operation 2807, the metadata database isupdated after receiving the set of notifications which may be one ormore notifications but less than the total number of notifications hadthere been no coalescing of notifications.

A typical notification will include an identification of the file whichis the subject of the notification and an identification of theoperation on the file and other pertinent data such as, if the operationis a renaming operation, then the file's name before the renaming andthe file's name after the renaming or, if the operation is a permissionschange, information specifying permissions before and after. Theidentification of the file may be by a pathname of the file and/or apersistent, unique file identification number or set of characters.

FIG. 29 shows a more detailed example for coalescing notifications whenan operation is performed on a group of related objects, such as apackage of files (other examples of related objects include objectsinvolved in copying a big hierarchy of files or coalescing based onevents in indexing or metadata queues). Operation 2901 determines thatan operation, such as a copying operation, has been performed on apackage. This may occur, for example, by having a software componentknown as Launch Services specify that the file which has been copied ispart of a package of files. The notification from the operating systemabout the first file may also include an indication that it is part of apackage, or alternatively, a software coalescing unit which is part ofthe metadata database software may request Launch Services to identifywhether the file is part of a package. In operation 2903, the firstnotification from the operation on the package is added to a cache of asoftware coalescing unit. The cache delays the addition of thenotification to the importer queue, such as the “to be imported” queue.The caching unit of the coalescing unit may remember every notificationas it arrives and can coalesce any two notifications which are inprogress regardless of the number of notifications. On the other hand,in a different implementation, partial caching remembers only a limitedsubset of files arriving into the cache and relies on temporal localityof locations to achieve most of the benefits of full caching with asignificantly smaller investment of memory and computation. Thecoalescing unit in operation 2905 continues to receive furthernotifications from the operation on the package (for example, as eachfile within the package is copied the coalescing unit receivesadditional notifications), and the coalescing unit drops those furthernotifications since they are part of the same package. Once it becomesprobable that no more notifications are coming for the package then asingle notification (or a set of notifications which is less than thetotal number of notifications) is pushed to the importer to cause theimportation of metadata into the metadata database. Operation 2907represents one way of determining that no further notifications arecoming. After a period of time, as shown in operation 2907, the firstnotification is added to the “to be imported” queue. This firstnotification identifies the entire contents of the package which canthen be imported by processing the notification as in operation 2909 inorder to update the metadata database. The period of time may be a shortperiod of time, such as a fraction of a second. An alternative techniqueof determining when no further notifications are probable is when thereis an overflow in the notification cache. In this case, the lastnotification for the item is pushed out of the cache to make room forthe new element and if another notification does arrive it is treated asif it was the first in the list.

Coalescing of notifications for single files which are not part ofpackages or a group of related objects may also be performed accordingto certain embodiments of the invention. FIG. 30 shows an exemplarymethod for performing coalescing of notifications for a single file.Generally, the probability of a follow-on notification after a firstnotification for a single file is relatively low, so the notificationmay be placed directly into an importer queue as soon as possible. Itmay optionally pass through a caching unit of a coalescing unit as shownin FIG. 30. If a similar notification arrives before the originalnotification is de-queued and imported, then the coalescing unitdeclares the new notification redundant and drops it. The effect is thatall notifications, which occur before the original notification isde-queued, are collapsed into a single notification. Alternatively, theymay be collapsed into a set of notifications which is smaller than theoriginal group of notifications would have been. If the notification hasalready been de-queued, further notifications are coalesced in aslightly different mode which may be referred to as a “bookend mode.” Ifthe first importation has already occurred for the file, then afollow-on notification arrives too late for it to be coalesced with theprior notification. In bookend mode, the last notification whichfollowed on from the de-queued notification is saved, while all furthernotifications for that file are dropped until it becomes probable thatno further notifications will be received. At this point, the very lastnotification which is received or the last saved notification is passedto the metadata importer. The effect is to bookend the series ofnotifications into a smaller set of notifications, such as a singlenotification at the beginning and a single notification at the end. FIG.30 represents an exemplary method for coalescing notifications for asingle file. This method may also be used to coalesce notifications forupdating an index database for the content of a file.

In operation 3001, the first notification that a file “ABC.txt” has beenmodified is received. This notification is optionally added to a cacheof a coalescing unit in operation 3003, and then the notification isadded to a “to be imported” queue in operation 3005. A secondnotification that the file ABC.txt has been modified is received inoperation 3007. This notification may be in response to the userselecting a “save” command for the second time in a short period oftime. For example, a user may have caused the first notification bysaving the file at a first instant of time and then subsequently causinga save command to occur merely three seconds later after the first savecommand was caused by the user. In response to receiving the secondnotification, the system determines in operation 3009 whether the firstnotification for the file ABC.txt has been de-queued and imported. If ithas not, then the second notification is dropped, and otherwiseprocessing proceeds to operation 3011. In other words, if the firstnotification is still queued in the “to be imported” queue, then thesecond notification is dropped and processing proceeds to operation3011. If the first notification has been de-queued and imported, thenthe second notification is saved in the queue and processing proceeds tooperation 3011. Operation 3011 attempts to determine when the nextnotification for the file is likely to be the last one. This may occurwhen detecting that the program which has created the file is quittingand the save is occurring or by waiting for a period of time. Allnotifications arriving before that last notification are dropped and thelast notification is added to the “to be imported” queue. Then inoperation 3013, the last expected notification is de-queued whichthereby causes changes in the ABC.txt file to be imported into themetadata database. In an alternative embodiment, data may be retainedfrom at least some (or all) dropped notifications, and this data may beexamined to determine whether and when to index the file (or group offiles).

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evidentthat various modifications may be made thereto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in thefollowing claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to beregarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A machine implemented method of processing data,the method comprising: receiving a first notification signaling that afirst file has been modified; adding the first notification to a firstqueue; combining, by a data processing system, notifications into acombined notification for updating a metadata database or an indexdatabase, wherein the combining comprises dropping one of a secondnotification or the first notification and wherein each notification isprovided by an operating system component and wherein the notificationsinclude at least two notifications; retaining data from the at least onenotification which was dropped; determining whether to update themetadata database or the index database based on the retained data; andupdating the metadata database or the index database after receiving thecombined notification.
 2. A method as in claim 1 wherein, in themetadata database, the type of information in metadata for files of afirst type differs from the type of information in metadata for files ofa second type and wherein the combined notification further comprisesdata from the second notification.
 3. A method as in claim 2 furthercomprising: filtering the notifications before the combining ofnotifications, wherein notifications for files that are not to beindexed are prevented from causing the metadata database to be updated.4. A method as in claim 3 wherein the filtering is based on a filepathname of the file and a plurality of predetermined pathnames.
 5. Amethod as in claim 1 wherein each of the notifications indicate acreation or modification of a file on a storage device.
 6. Anon-transitory machine readable storage medium providing instructionswhich when executed by a data processing system cause the dataprocessing system to perform a method of processing data, the methodcomprising: receiving a first notification signaling that a first filehas been modified; adding the first notification to a first queue;combining notifications into a combined notification for updating ametadata database or an index database, wherein the combining comprisesdropping one of a second notification or the first notification andwherein each notification is provided by an operating system componentand wherein the notifications include at least two notifications;retaining data from the at least one notification which was dropped;determining whether to update the metadata database or the indexdatabase based on the retained data; and updating the metadata databaseor the index database after receiving the combined notification.
 7. Themachine readable storage medium as in claim 6 wherein, in the metadatadatabase, the type of information in metadata for files of a first typediffers from the type of information in metadata for files of a secondtype and wherein the combined notification further comprises data fromthe second notification.
 8. The machine readable storage medium as inclaim 7, the method further comprising: filtering the notificationsbefore the combining of notifications, wherein notifications for filesthat are not to be indexed are prevented from causing the metadatadatabase to be updated.
 9. The machine readable storage medium as inclaim 8 wherein the filtering is based on a file pathname of the fileand a plurality of predetermined pathnames.
 10. The machine readablestorage medium as in claim 6 wherein each of the notifications indicatea creation or modification of a file on a storage device.
 11. A dataprocessing system comprising: means for receiving a first notificationsignaling that a first file has been modified; means for adding thefirst notification to a first queue; means for combining, by a hardwaredevice, notifications into a combined notification for updating ametadata database or an index database, wherein the combining comprisesdropping one of a second notification or the first notification andwherein each notification is provided by an operating system componentand wherein the notifications include at least two notifications; meansfor retaining data from the at least one notification which was dropped;means for determining whether to update the metadata database or theindex database based on the retained data; and means for updating themetadata database or the index database after receiving the combinednotification.
 12. A system as in claim 11 wherein, in the metadatadatabase, the type of information in metadata for files of a first typediffers from the type of information in metadata for files of a secondtype and wherein the combined notification further comprises data fromthe second notification.
 13. A system as in claim 12 further comprising:means for filtering the notifications before the combining ofnotifications, wherein notifications for files that are not to beindexed are prevented from causing the metadata database to be updated.14. A system as in claim 13 wherein the filtering is based on a filepathname of the file and a plurality of predetermined pathnames.
 15. Asystem as in claim 11 wherein each of the notifications indicate acreation as modification of a file on a storage device.
 16. A machineimplemented method of processing data, the method comprising: receivinga first notification signaling that a first file has been modified;adding the first notification to a first queue; grouping, by a dataprocessing system, a first set of notifications into a second set ofnotifications for updating a metadata database or an index database,wherein the grouping comprises dropping one of a second notification orthe first notification, wherein the second set is smaller than the firstset which is at least two notifications while the second set is two orless than two notifications; retaining data from the at least onenotification which was dropped; determining whether to update themetadata database or the index database based on the retained data; andupdating the metadata database or the index database after receiving thesecond set of notifications.
 17. A method as in claim 16 wherein thesecond set is smaller than the first set which is at least twonotifications while the second set is two or less than two.
 18. A methodas in claim 16 wherein, in the metadata database, the type ofinformation in metadata for files of a first type differs from the typeof information in metadata for files of a second type.
 19. A method asin claim 16 wherein the grouping is in response to determining thatfiles identified by the first set of notifications are part of apackage.
 20. A method as in claim 16 wherein each of the notificationsindicate a creation or modification of a file on a storage device and isprovided by an operating system component.
 21. A method as in claim 16further comprising: filtering the first set of notifications before thegrouping of notifications, wherein notifications for files that are notto be indexed are prevented from causing the metadata database to beupdated.
 22. A method as in claim 16, wherein the second set ofnotifications further comprises the first notification.
 23. A method asin claim 22, wherein the second set of notifications further comprisesdata from the second notification.
 24. A method as in claim 16, whereinthe combining further comprises: determining when a next notification islikely to be a last notification and adding the last notification to thefirst queue.
 25. A method as in claim 16, wherein the second set ofnotifications comprises the last notification.
 26. A non-transitorymachine readable storage medium providing instructions which whenexecuted by a data processing system cause the data processing system toperform a method of processing data, the method comprising: receiving afirst notification signaling that a first file has been modified; addingthe first notification to a first queue; grouping, by a data processingsystem, a first set of notifications into a second set of notificationsfor updating a metadata database or an index database, wherein thegrouping comprises dropping one of a second notification or the firstnotification, wherein the second set is smaller than the first set whichis at least two notifications while the second set is two or less thantwo notifications; retaining data from the at least one notificationwhich was dropped; determining whether to update the metadata databaseor the index database based on the retained data; and updating themetadata database or the index database after receiving the second setof notifications.
 27. The machine readable storage medium as in claim 26wherein the second set is smaller than the first set which is at leasttwo notifications while the second set is two or less than two.
 28. Themachine readable storage medium as in claim 26 wherein, in the metadatadatabase, the type of information in metadata for files of a first typediffers from the type of information in metadata for files of a secondtype.
 29. The machine readable storage medium as in claim 26 wherein thegrouping is in response to determining that files identified by thefirst set of notifications are part of a package.
 30. The machinereadable storage medium as in claim 26 wherein each of the notificationsindicate a creation or modification of a file on a storage device and isprovided by an operating system component.
 31. The machine readablestorage medium as in claim 26 further comprising: filtering the firstset of notifications before the grouping of notifications, whereinnotifications for files that are not to be indexed are prevented fromcausing the metadata database to be updated.
 32. The machine readablestorage medium as in claim 26, wherein the second set of notificationsfurther comprises the first notification.
 33. The machine readablestorage medium as in claim 32, wherein the second set of notificationsfurther comprises data from the second notification.
 34. The machinereadable storage medium as in claim 26, wherein the combining furthercomprises: determining when a next notification is likely to be a lastnotification and adding the last notification to the first queue. 35.The machine readable storage medium as in claim 26, wherein the secondset of notifications comprises the last notification.
 36. A dataprocessing system comprising: means for receiving a first notificationsignaling that a first file has been modified; means for adding thefirst notification to a first queue; means for grouping, by a hardwaredevice, a first set of notifications into a second set of notificationsfor updating a metadata database or an index database, wherein thegrouping comprises dropping one of a second notification or the firstnotification, wherein the second set is smaller than the first set whichis at least two notifications while the second set is two or less thantwo notifications; means for retaining data from the at least onenotification which was dropped; means for determining whether to updatethe metadata database or the index database based on the retained data;and means for updating the metadata database or the index database afterreceiving the second set of notifications.
 37. A system as in claim 36wherein the second set is smaller than the first set which is at leasttwo notifications while the second set is two or less than two.
 38. Asystem as in claim 36 wherein, in the metadata database, the type ofinformation in metadata for files of a first type differs from the typeof information in metadata for files of a second type.
 39. A system asin claim 36 wherein the grouping is in response to determining thatfiles identified by the first set of notifications are part of apackage.
 40. A system as in claim 36 wherein each of the notificationsindicate a creation or modification of a file on a storage device and isprovided by an operating system component.
 41. A system as in claim 36further comprising: means for filtering the first set of notificationsbefore the grouping of notifications, wherein notifications for filesthat are not to be indexed are prevented from causing the metadatadatabase to be updated.
 42. A system as in claim 36, wherein the secondset of notifications further comprises the first notification.
 43. Asystem as in claim 42, wherein the second set of notifications furthercomprises data from the second notification.
 44. A system as in claim36, wherein the combining further comprises: means for determining whena next notification is likely to be a last notification and adding thelast notification to the first queue.
 45. A system as in claim 36,wherein the second set of notifications comprises the last notification.46. A method as in claim 1, wherein the combining further comprises:determining when a next notification is likely to be a last notificationand adding the last notification to the first queue.
 47. A method as inclaim 1, wherein the combined notification comprises the lastnotification.
 48. The machine readable storage medium as in claim 6,wherein the combining further comprises: determining when a nextnotification is likely to be a last notification and adding the lastnotification to the first queue.
 49. The machine readable storage mediumas in claim 6, wherein the combined notification comprises the lastnotification.
 50. A system as in claim 11, wherein the combining furthercomprises: means for determining when a next notification is likely tobe a last notification and adding the last notification to the firstqueue.
 51. A system as in claim 11, wherein the combined notificationcomprises the last notification.
 52. The method of claim 16, furthercomprising: determining whether to update the metadata database or theindex database based on the retained data.
 53. The medium readablestorage medium of claim 26, the method further comprising: determiningwhether to update the metadata database or the index database based onthe retained data.
 54. The system of claim 36, further comprising: meansfor determining whether to update the metadata database or the indexdatabase based on the retained data.